Pinanski Teaching Prize
Oh hi!
It’s been a while.
I come from a long lineage of teachers. My dad is a music teacher, as you likely know. His mom taught art and music. His dad (my mom just reminded me ) started his career as a math teacher. My mom's dad taught music and led choirs. My Babcia, my mom's mom, taught German and French to three generations of students in my mother's hometown in Poland. I married the best voice teacher I've ever witnessed. I carry my own teachers with me into every class I enter, on my shoulders, and we whisper with each other. I love teachers.
The first class I ever co-taught was with my cousin Łukasz, teaching English as a second language in Klub Koliber in that same Polish town. I used theatre games and Beatles lyrics and staged a kind of devised sketch show in English for an audience of the students' parents which involved getting Łukasz to agree to MC the to-do in the character of an old Polish lady bard in a babushka with a bad back, who also played guitar in the corner by the pool table when needed. I think I was 14. My Babcia came and had a good time. I love teaching.
But today...wow.
I can no other answer make but thanks, and thanks, and ever thanks. To be recognized with a Pinanski Teaching Prize at @wellesleycollege 's Commencement today was an impossible dream realized, plain and simple.
To my students and colleagues who secretly took it upon themselves to nominate me, the joy has been absolutely mine, and I am so deeply moved and honored. I will endeavor to keep our work through @wellesleycollegetheatre playful and expansive!
Congratulations to the PURPLE class of 2022 - the first cohort to graduate under my Theatre Studies directorship here. I love you! I thank you!
