ABOUT THE TEACHER STEPHANIE ALEXIS CAYOT

As a child growing up in northern Indiana, I was encouraged most by experiences of traveling, sketching and writing. My parents encouraged me to continue learning, exploring to find how I could contribute to the world. At that age, I wanted to become an artist. However, in high school, I began a mentorship program with a 1st grade teacher with the opportunity to read to the children and even help teach lessons in the classroom. From here, my interest in education blossomed and I received several scholarships to pursue this interest in college. Thus, my undergraduate major became Elementary Education and my minor, Studio Art, to pursue my interests of my youth.

Beyond my art and studies, my time at Indiana University was spent training for marathons, cycling for my sorority's Little 500 team, and being active in campus government. I especially enjoyed my early field placements in elementary schools. However I dreamed of teaching outside of Indiana. So after graduation, I moved to Milan, Italy to work at The American School of Milan in a classroom of 5, 6, 7 year old children. Although I was trained in progressive education approaches, meeting the needs of all the learners in this linguistically, culturally, and developmentally diverse classroom was an opportunity for intense professional growth. A team of passionate and experienced colleagues were my guides; illustrating to me the importance of meeting each child at their level and knowing their unique strengths. As a self-managing team of primary teachers, we took on the project of designing a 3-year curriculum for the Primary Multiage Years, compiling U.S. state science and social studies standards into a project-inquiry approach with am emphasis on the writing process. In our whirlwind of creation, Dr. Sandra Stone from Northern Arizona University came to guide our process. With this impetus, that summer I began my masters coursework from Dr. Stone in Flagstaff, AZ where I studied constructivist practices and non-graded systems. This helped confirm that I needed to keep studying to answer some of my most pervasive educational curiosities.

I returned to Indiana University to continue this quest of understanding of how young children learn best by working on my PhD in Curriculum and Instruction. Currently, I teach two undergraduate courses to majors of elementary education; Democracy in the Elementary Classroom and another teacher-education course on the practicalities of teaching such as classroom management. My research interests include classroom issues such as identity formation of children, second language acquisition, and conflict-resolution in play episodes. In the future, I hope to continue teaching at a college or university, doing research, or curriculum development that will encourage thoughtful teaching practices.

"Last night, lying in bed unable to sleep thinking about the events of the week I realized that in my search to find common ground between the two cultures, I found something much more important. I experienced first hand one of the many reasons why it is important to learn about other cultures. Not only do other cultures expose you to things that are different, such as foods, holidays, and clothing. They help you see your home from a new perspective. I was provided with an important reminder: when you cross the bridge to another culture you begin to link places within yourself."t