What Your English Teachers Actually Want: A Guide to Acing Ms. Mazor’s, Dr. Kuntz’s, and Dr. Gervasio’s classes
Ms. Mazor
Background:
Ms. Mazor went to high school in Brookline, Massachusetts, where her friends created a protest paper for her school’s official newspaper. She was a weekend social columnist who wrote many hilarious cafe reviews. After high school, Ms. Mazor attended Columbia University for her undergraduate degree in comparative literature with a concentration in French and Hebrew literature, and for her Master’s in Science and Education. Before teaching at Grace, Ms. Mazor began working in the development office of a school, yet after only six days of watching classes of kids interact in the hallways, she knew she had to be a teacher. She taught at the Rodeph Sholom school, where she began as a sixth-grade assistant and play director.
Books to Discuss with Her:
Ms. Mazor absolutely loves The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, a seminal book about the Vietnam War.
How to Ace Her Class:
Ms. Mazor values students who are not afraid to share what they really think in class. She wants to hear everyone’s thoughts and opinions, not just what you think Ms. Mazor wants you to hear. Speak your mind and come to her class prepared to contribute to the class’s discussion!
“Students should know I never find my job boring because I get to read really good books and talk about them with really good people.”
Dr. Kuntz
Background:
Dr. Kuntz was Editor-in-Chief of her high school’s literary magazine Windward Nautical. Dr. Kuntz double majored in Theater and Philosophy at Williams College, and completed her PhD program for theatre and performance and substituted for the comparative literature department at Columbia University. Prior to her PHD program, She began working for Ms. Grafton’s husband as a development intern at a storytelling non-profit called Moth.
Books to Discuss with Her:
Dr. Kuntz would love to discuss The Seagull by Anton Chekhov. She read this play in high school and recently taught it this semester. She appreciates that the play is about love, anxiety, and trying to find your place in the world.
How to Ace her Class:
Dr. Kuntz wants students to put themselves in uncomfortable situations. She appreciates essays that analyze unexpected topics where what a student was expecting to discuss may not have come to fruition. Dr. Kuntz firmly believes that an acknowledgement of contradiction results in the best arguments and most interesting essays.
“Something that is really important in studying literature is really paying attention to what feels weird, strange, and dissonant, not trying to move quickly to the neat, tidy, and obvious.”
Dr. Gervasio
Background:
Dr. Gervasio went to Bryn Mawr, where she double majored in English and Urban Studies. Similar to her colleague Dr. Kuntz, Dr. Gervasio also completed the Phd program at Columbia for English and Comparative Literature. Dr. Gervasio was an editor for a zine literary magazine throughout college and an opinion editor for another college paper. She started working at Google in advertising and tech, but realized the job wasn’t for her. She decided to pursue a teaching degree and went to Columbia. She chose Columbia because the program required six semesters of teaching, and she wanted to gain experience.
Books to Discuss with Her:
One of Dr. Gervasio’s favorite books is On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong. The characters resonate deeply with her, and she appreciates the combination of poetry and fiction.
How to Ace her Class:
Dr. Gervasio wants students to channel their creative and weird sides. She pushes students to give interpretations of a text that cannot be verified because she’s trying to get them to expand their critical thinking. She wants her students to feel more comfortable cultivating their imagination and having fun. She wants you to be weird and risky: better to take the risk and say something off the wall than to repeat a quote back to her in your own words.
“Kids are guarded about being imaginative just because it might be wrong, and imagination is ambiguous.”
Peyton DeBevoise, the author, is a staff writer for The Grace Gazette