Always looking to learn, Ms. KC Lawler enters every class with a big smile — and almost always talking to a student or a colleague. She, as a newly joined part of the mathematics faculty at Loomis Chaffee, started her twenty-four year tenure as a math teacher in West Africa.
Fresh out of college with a bachelor’s degree in English, Ms. Lawler couldn’t find any jobs teaching English.
“There were so many experienced English teachers and I was brand new,” Ms. Lawler said. “Schools kept saying if only you taught math or science. I said I can do that, and so I went back to school to get a bachelor’s degree in mathematics.”
While studying for her degree in mathematics, Ms. Lawler got her first teaching gig and went to West Africa for a study abroad program where she was an emissary for a small fund to teach and help the village she was staying in. She then taught at a boarding school in New Hampshire and moved around schools until she found her way to LC.
“I am more of a teacher than a mathematician,” Ms. Lawler said. “I love watching someone who wasn’t initially confident in something light up [as] they all of a sudden realize they can do it.”
Her career at Loomis has brought many cherished memories.
“I had one class where I looked at the clock and said, ‘we only have ten minutes left,’” Ms. Lawler said. “The whole class said, ‘what?’ They hadn’t realized that class was almost over and one of [the students] said that they were having fun.”
Her love of teaching extends beyond the classroom.
“I love traveling with students for the same reason I love teaching: when you take someone somewhere they have never been before, they get to see something for the first time ever,” Ms. Lawler said.
From trips to the Amazon rainforest to Mozambique, in every experience abroad, Ms. Lawler encountered new situations, whether it was a baboon stealing her students’ clothing or getting to touch anacondas.
“A colleague and I took seven boys to the Amazon rainforest, and we had a herpetologist, someone who studies reptiles, join us,” Ms. Lawler said. “The first night, [the herpetologist] jumped off the boat at the research station, and next thing we know there he was standing in front of us with a baby anaconda in each hand. When he asked who wanted to hold an anaconda, every single one of the seven boys raised their hand. It’s really exciting to watch students get just as excited as the leaders of the trip when we find something crazy and new.”
At Loomis, she hopes to find similar experiences within a different learning environment. Ms. Lawler originally came to Loomis to learn, and through the Kravis Center for Excellence in Teaching, she learns from and with other faculty through conversations about how to make the learning experience better for students. At a school where there is a heavy focus on professional development for faculty, Ms. Lawler also continues to impart her knowledge as well as learn from others.
“I really hope that I live up to what I see as a really tremendous faculty, people who care incredibly about [every] student,” Ms. Lawler said.