Meet Our Faculty

Upper School Music
19 years teaching, 2 at Country Day

br />Why is building strong teacher/student relationships important to you?

In the arts, we’re asking people to be vulnerable and show this other side of who they are; not just the academic part, but asking them, in my case, to sing. You have to build a relationship of trust and respect for each other so they’re willing to put themselves out there. One of the special things about teaching choir is that I may have a student for all four years, so I get to experience their growth, to see how they mature and gain confidence, how they learn that their voice is their power. Teenagers are really interesting people. They wear their emotions on their sleeves, so you learn a lot about them, especially if you build that trust. They’re fun to be around and they teach me a lot, too. I’ve also started a faculty choir and that has helped to build some wonderful relationships across departments and disciplines. 

How are you a lifelong learner?

I’ve always enjoyed school. I got my undergraduate degree in piano performance, then a master’s in performance and pedagogy. A little while later I got a doctorate in education. And a little while after that I was ready for something else, so I moved to Ireland and got a second master’s in Gregorian chant and Irish singing. Recently, I’ve started taking harp lessons and hope to eventually be certified as a therapeutic harpist. There’s so much to learn; you can never know it all.  Since being at Country Day, I was able to offer students a new class in Piano. We have a lab with six keyboards and headphones. Students work at their own pace, but also play for each other to build confidence. It’s a popular class, I think, because students can learn how to read music without having to be in a larger ensemble, or they just don’t feel comfortable singing. 

What do you know now that you wish you knew when you started teaching?

Relax! When I came out of graduate school, I was so intense. When you’re a new teacher, you’re so eager for your students to learn and eager for them to be their best, that you’re not always your best. I haven’t lowered the bar, but I’ve learned to be more empathetic and understanding of what my students have going on in their lives. They’re not in college, they’re not majoring in music, they have other classes and commitments. It goes back to relationship building. When you know your students, you know what they need, and it makes for a better  experience for everyone. 

Fourth-Grade Lead Teacher
26 years teaching, 9 at Country Day

What do you like about teaching?

You don’t get into teaching if you don’t love working with kids. Seeing them learn something new or figure out something that has challenged them is highly rewarding. And to truly be influential as a teacher, I think you have to get to know them as more than your students. You have to take time to learn about their hobbies and interests, what’s on their minds, and even listen to Taylor Swift songs since that’s what most of my girls are talking about right now. I also coach for the Varsity Football team. So, I get to see my students as little kids and then reconnect later when they’re young men on their way out and turning into amazing adults.  Country Day is truly an amazing place to share my love of teaching. It’s a combination of a small town meets small college.
It’s a friendly and safe place to learn and be yourself and evolve into the person you’re going to be. I feel like I’ve evolved into a better teacher because of the culture that is cultivated here.

How are you a lifelong learner?

I think collaboration is one of the most important tools to help people grow as learners. My teaching has evolved through conversations with my fellow teachers. By learning how someone else approaches a lesson or strategies for classroom management, I get inspired. I may not take the idea as is. I often put my own spin, my own style on it, but it’s helping me to stay fresh and keep my students engaged.  I also like to use a balanced amount of technology in the classroom. By fourth grade, we’re preparing students for the iPads they’ll be using in Middle School. I like exploring how to incorporate apps into the lesson so that the kids feel like they’re having fun, but they are still learning. But you also have to recognize that some kids do better with paper and pencil. Others learn best with manipulatives, or they are oral listeners. Every child’s learning path is different. I think the more you play around with delivery methods, the more techniques you use, you’re going to find what works for each student.

What do you know now that you wish you knew when you started teaching?

Question everything. Why am I teaching this? Why am I doing it this way? I think that’s the way you learn. You’re doing yourself and your students a disservice if you deliver a lesson the way you were told to by someone else or just because you’ve always done it that way. You really become a great teacher and a great learner by asking questions. That’s what I strive to teach my kids. Question, question, question, and you’ll keep evolving.

Upper School Chinese
15 years teaching, 4 at Country Day

How do you structure your class to build strong relationships with your students?

I believe students come before content and relationships before teaching. Every student is different, every class is different. When students sense you really care about them, they are motivated to learn. I really listen to my students—it’s not just me saying what I think or dictating how the teaching will go. I think of my students as the “hosts” of their classroom; we teach and influence each other. And because we have strong relationships, they feel comfortable telling me how they want to learn. For instance, when they are learning vocabulary, they may tell me it’s not sticking and ask if we can turn it into a game. I always welcome their suggestions because we’re in this learning process together.  The kids at Country Day are all very sweet. I love seeing their faces every day. They want to share about their lives outside of school, and I want to hear it. Sometimes I can use it in my teaching. They are happy when they come into my classroom and they’re happy when they leave. On the back of the door, I have signs in Chinese that say, “Thank you,” “Good-bye,” and “Remember to Smile.”

How are you a lifelong learner?

If you want to be a good teacher, you also have to want to learn. You have to model that for your students. Technology can be used to enhance the lessons and really engage students. Recently I began exploring the website Canva, where you can get creative with designs and illustrations. I converted the textbook lessons on
vocabulary and grammar into a storybook on the website. The students are also creating their own stories on this website, and they are teaching me how to use the tools better.  I also engage students with games. Everyone loves games and the students don’t feel like they’re learning language acquisition. It’s subconscious but they are gaining knowledge. And they teach me games—I’ve learned Jeopardy, Connect Four, Who’s the  Spy, and many more.

What do you know now that you wish you knew when you started teaching?

Slow is fast; less is more. Fifteen years ago, when I started my career, I gave students all I had and didn’t stop to think about what they needed. I would think “they should know this. Why can they still not get it?” Now, as I’ve grown comfortable as a teacher, I know that I can teach less, and spend more time getting to know my students. In the end, the students get the knowledge they need to be prepared for the next level because they feel happy and safe, and they know we are on the same journey. 

Eighth-Grade English
30 years teaching at Country Day

How does making kids feel comfortable in the classroom benefit their learning?

The more comfortable they feel with me, the more likely they are to participate in class. In an English class there are many opportunities for discussion and sharing written work. The more students feel they have a relationship with their teacher, the more comfortable they feel, the more likely they are to participate. I also want my students to feel I’m on their side. So, when I create a difficult assignment or it’s on a tight deadline, it’s really important for me to have actually completed the assignment myself. I’ve found over the years that it helps me to do a better job of explaining to them what I am expecting. By providing examples from my own work, it shows them that, “Ok, this is feasible, and I can manage it.” I try to guide them along the way, because as a student I would need that guidance, too. I think I’m a better teacher when I walk in my students’ shoes a bit. 

After 30 years, how do you keep your content fresh?

I think that just picking up last year’s lesson plan is cheating the kids in a way. There’s probably always a little more that I haven’t thought about or a better way we can deliver the material. For instance, just this past year, we completely updated the core of our instruction around punctuation. Pedagogy says you should teach it within the writing and not in isolation and that’s something we’ve struggled with over time. Last year on the very last day of school, I happened to pick up a book that another teacher had left after cleaning out her room. Well, this was the dream book for how to incorporate punctuation and grammar rules into your writing.  After reading the book several times early in the summer break, I wrote to my colleagues and told them I’d really like to incorporate these methods into our curriculum this year. We have, and the experience for us and the kids has been radically different and so rewarding.

What do you know now that you wish you knew when you first started teaching?

When you first start out, you don’t have to know everything to be an effective teacher. In fact, you are always going to need to adapt. You can’t just read a book once and expect to teach it well. Even if I’ve read the book four times a day for years, I still always feel I should read it again before the next day’s discussion because there is always something new the kids will bring up. There’s always more I can learn from them. Teaching English gives me a daily opportunity to share my love of words, literature, and writing with young people. Teaching at Country Day allows me the flexibility to collaborate with my colleagues to design the most effective and beneficial curriculum we can. 

Upper School Math
17 years teaching, 11 at Country Day

Why is it important to build strong relationships with students?

If you’re learning something for the first time, there is a sense of vulnerability. And if you don’t feel safe, you won’t feel that you can trust the person who’s delivering the information. You can’t learn deeply enough, because too much of your headspace is taken up with nerves and anxiety. Getting to know my students on a personal level—what’s happening in their lives outside of the classroom—builds the trust needed for them to take risks, to know that grace will be shown if they fail, and that we are in this together.

How are you a lifelong learner?

When you’ve done something for a long time, I think it just becomes second nature to want to improve on your craft. It seems like every day something inspires me that I can tie into my classroom to keep the content fresh and engaging—I know math content can be dry! For instance, my children received the strategy game Qwirkle as a gift. We had so much fun with it as a family, I decided to incorporate the game into the power functions lessons I was teaching at the time in my Honors Algebra 2 classes. I’ve done that with Battleship and other games. Even though playing games in class doesn’t involve equations and solving algebraically, my students are learning or reviewing concepts in fun and memorable ways. I also like to bring art into the classroom, even though I don’t necessarily see myself as an artist. As part of our unit on transformations, which entails mapping a preimage of a shape or a function to an image of the same shape or function, we made stained glass windows. It involved glue and the tearing of tissue paper. It’s a hands-on activity where the students can fail and try again, use a different part of their brains, and still make those important connections to the content. I hope my students remember what I am teaching them in terms of the math, but I think the experiences I am creating and the way they felt in my class are what they are going to remember years from now and that will bring back the math.

What do you know now that you wish you knew when you first started teaching?

There’s no one way to do anything. Early in my career, I thought I had to be in lock step with my mentor. It’s great to have mentors to show you the ropes when you first get started, but you can also change the method while still delivering the same content. I’ve learned that if you’re authentic to what feels good and right to you, it’s more effective for the students.

In his 17 years as an eighth-grade science teacher at Country Day, Simon Keilty has made a tremendous impact on Bissell Campus and its students.

Simon, along with colleague Sarah Klingler, has developed an inquiry-based, eighth-grade science course that gives students real-world opportunities to test their ideas or hypotheses and create indelible change in their communities—whether analyzing the school’s waste stream, improving crop yield in a controlled setting, or macroinvertebrate sampling in McAlpine Creek to assess long-term water quality.

Whether enhancing the science curriculum, creating clubs that ignite students’ passions, or developing innovative programming, Simon is constantly working to engage a broad spectrum of students and build their curiosity about and appreciation for the natural world.

The weather station Simon built and installed on Bissell Campus more than 15 years ago pushes data to external sites and supports atmospheric studies. Last spring, Simon worked with rising freshman Alex Levine to rebuild a weather station for installation on Weddington Farm. He hopes to use this weather and air-quality data for student studies and comparisons with the Bissell Campus data. He also co-leads the Garden Club, Green Team, and newly formed Mountain Bike Club.

As much as he does on campus, Simon says, “One of the more powerful school experiences I participate in is the sister school exchanges. They provide a tremendous opportunity for our students to grow and expand their global perspectives.” He has led exchanges to Costa Rica and Mexico and also mentored two students in their development of an Upper School Environmental Trip to Australia in 2017, which he co-led with Donna  Campbell-Patrick.

This past June, he worked to further strengthen the connection between environmental awareness and global interactions. He applied for and won the World Affairs Council of Charlotte 2022-23 Council Scholar Award to fund his travel to Ghana to develop an air-quality monitoring curriculum between our sister schools
(read more here). This year’s award was supported by the Margaret Gragg Bissell Teacher Centered International Educational Endowment.

“I am now working to establish this with more of our sister schools, but I began with our new relationships in Ghana, explains Simon. "My hope is that this program will help inform and educate each school about the factors that determine their local air quality, as well as allow teachers and students to share this data, deepening their understanding and our relationships.”  

Simon is deeply appreciative of the support he receives from the school to bring innovative programming and extracurricular activities to his students.

Simon KeiltyEighth-grade teacher

“I feel privileged to have the support of my colleagues, administrators,  and parents. At every turn, from a teaching schedule that allows us time to design new course activities, funding to design new labs, and professional development opportunities, I am encouraged to brainstorm, experiment, and develop programs that give my  students a phenomenal experience.”