Dr. Elizabeth Ryan is a sophomore history teacher at Cranbrook, and former Head House advisor for eight years.

Dr. Ryan was actually host Qadir Muhammad’s history teacher when he was a student! She sits down with him today to catch up and chat about her fav classes to teach, her class project on the history of feminism at Cranbrook, her journey to a teaching career, as well as teaching through Covid and getting kids caught up after those strange, virtual years.

Aim High is a production of Cranbrook Kingswood School and is produced by University FM.

Feminist Thought Class Goes Back in Time

18:14 - Some people really like to be lectured to and told information. Other people find that boring, right? Some people like the videos; some people don't like group work. One of the keys to me is to try and figure out for each student what they seem to like, what they seem to gravitate towards, and mix things up. I try to mix things up throughout the year, so we're not always doing the same thing. And I try not to give work that is superfluous. If I tell those students, if I'm giving you some homework, it's because I think you need it for either the content or the skill, right? Because that's really what school is about: content and skills.

32:05 - It's okay to fail. It's okay to do it wrong the first time to learn how to do it. You don't have to be perfect, but you certainly don't have to be perfect the first time you learn something.

Teaching is more than just grading papers

30:56 - Any teacher who loves teaching—that's what they'll tell you, right? It's not grading papers. I like lesson planning, but it's not lesson planning. You know, it's seeing your students do interesting things and become the people they are meant to be.

Developing your aesthetic judgment by asking the right questions

05:55 - The students are interested in things they can see around them, like impacting them at school, and sports tend to be one that most students have encountered. Something to do with gender and sports—I hear all kinds of interesting, weird things from these kids, but it's stuff that they experienced.