2018 Blackboard Award Honoree: Raina Gilchrist

Editor’s note: To read profiles of all 2018 Blackboard Awards honorees, click HERE!

Raina Gilchrist
Grade 5, Spanish & English Head Classroom
Avenues: The World School

Tell us about some of the special joys and challenges you’ve experienced as
a teacher.

My second year as a teaching assistant, I was with a head teacher who was quite rigid and closed-minded, only allowing me to teach the grammar curriculum of grade 4. I incorporated music, movement, and art into my lessons and shared my passion for linguistics. It was even sweeter when I became a head teacher for the first time the next year. I distinctly remember the warm feeling that filled my heart and the tears that began to fill my eyes that day.

Please share a special project or achievement that you are particularly proud of from this year.

I moved to grade 5 so that I could write the Spanish curriculum. I was excited and overwhelmed about developing a Spanish curriculum alongside an English curriculum that was completely unfamiliar to me. We decided that our first unit would be biographies. As we began the unit, the students and I were getting a little bored. I realized that the students should become their characters. Not only would this solve our No. 1 goal for immersion, but it would be a great motivator for the students!

Raina Gilchrist with President of Family Media Jonathan Moore. Photo by Daniel S. Burnstein.

What keeps you motivated and committed to being a dedicated and hard-working educator?

I’m a teacher because I love working, playing, thinking, sharing, and being with my students. There is no greater feeling than witnessing that “ah-ha” moment with a student. Being part of something as profound as educating young minds is such an inspiring task. I know that my drive comes partially from my competitive nature, but I also know that my dedication comes from knowing that no matter how great I make something, my kids will make it even greater.

What do you love about your school?

Every morning, I’m greeted by our incredible custodians, security guards, and chefs who take phenomenal care of our building and have been part of our classroom community. My colleagues are inspiring on many levels. While it’s exhausting work, teaching students in Spanish and seeing their progress is
truly remarkable. Avenues has made a strong commitment to this part of their mission and I’m honored to be a part of their school.

The École

At The &Eacute;cole, we believe that the goal of education is to develop well-informed, well-rounded, responsible, and compassionate students who can create and connect to a world filled with possibilities. This belief is at the heart of our uniquely designed bilingual program, in which students learn not just to speak, read, and write in two languages but also to think, feel, and act in ways informed by two cultures. To always see, explore, and understand the world around them from two perspectives is the gift of the deeply bi-literate, bi-cultural student. Artfully blending the curriculum requirements and pedagogical approaches of the French and American systems, our native-speaking faculty create rich academic environments for a diverse, international student body. From Maternelle through Middle School, students at The &Eacute;cole are guided through the core language arts, social studies, math, and sciences content, as well as character and cultural enrichment in both French and English for all subjects. In our intimate classroom settings or out and about in New York City&rsquo;s many artistic and historical institutions, using traditional and technology-based techniques, our teachers aspire to provide individual and group bilingual learning opportunities that engage, challenge, and inspire.

The Long Island School For The Gifted

A smart start of an educational journey.&nbsp; For over 40 years, The Long Island School For The Gifted has provided an accelerated experience for gifted children in pre-kindergarten through ninth grade, in a nurturing environment where they will be both intellectually challenged and comfortable socially. LISG helps gifted students develop the knowledge, skills, and competencies needed for life. Emotional, and social needs of the gifted child are addressed whilst building strong character as part of the commitment to developing the whole gifted child. The beauty of an independent gifted school like LISG is that students can learn and grow with others who are like them.&nbsp; We have found that LISG&rsquo;s whole-school approach to gifted education has benefitted our students both more broadly and more deeply than alternative approaches&mdash;like isolated &ldquo;enrichment&rdquo; activities, single accelerated classes, or simply placing exceptionally intelligent children with older students in higher-grade classes.&nbsp; With gifted peers, students learn in a cooperative environment that provides for their social and emotional development and in which giftedness is valued and nurtured by every teacher and staff member in the school. &nbsp;LISG has rolling admissions. Availability is limited based on the grade.&nbsp; Contact them today.

The Language Workshop For Children

After offering both group and private lessons for many years and analyzing the results over&nbsp;time, The&nbsp;Language Workshop for&nbsp;Children, founded&nbsp;in1973, has decided&nbsp;to emphasize private remote lessons at shorter intervals.&nbsp;Our skilled educators&nbsp;will&nbsp;focus their attention exclusively on the&nbsp;unique needs, learning style, and interests of your child.&nbsp;This allows a&nbsp;bond&nbsp;to develop&nbsp;between teacher and student, which&nbsp;has been&nbsp;shown to&nbsp;drastically improve retention.&nbsp; OUR METHOD&nbsp; Developed by the pioneers of language education for children, our programs bring decades of&nbsp;experience to your living room with individualized, active language classes. Each lesson is based on proven methods and materials perfected to capture your&nbsp;child&rsquo;s attention during the ages when he/she absorbs information the fastest. &nbsp;&nbsp; While other online language classes rely on videos for passive learning, we deliver interactive, and engaging lessons with native-fluent teachers. In addition, all our teachers are certified in the Thibaut&nbsp;Technique which has been featured&nbsp;in the New York&nbsp;Times, the&nbsp;Wall Street Journal, and many other well-respected&nbsp;publications.&nbsp;&nbsp; Our short one-on-one lessons give kids the chance to focus, hear pronunciation clearly, and practice speaking in their target language.  THE PROCESS&nbsp; First, students have a short meeting with our Director&nbsp;Francois&nbsp;Thibaut, in&nbsp;English, with&nbsp;their parent(s)&nbsp;present.&nbsp;Mr. Thibaut&nbsp;will determine&nbsp;the best course of study, including&nbsp;class length and&nbsp;frequency, the&nbsp;right&nbsp;teacher, lesson&nbsp;format and materials (or action games for younger students.) Then the learning&nbsp;begins!&nbsp;Mr. Thibaut will continually check in on your child&rsquo;s learning to assure they are getting the most&nbsp;of&nbsp;their&nbsp;classes.&nbsp; OTHER OFFERINGS&nbsp; We can also help your child prepare for: the French subject tests for SAT, AP &amp; CLEP, the European DELF/DALF, the Canadian TEF and other standardized testing, college entry exams, studying or traveling abroad,&nbsp;cultural changes when moving abroad,&nbsp;and much more!&nbsp; &nbsp;