Rebecca Tupling

PYP Coordinator • Think International School • Hong Kong

How did you get into teaching?

I grew up in a family of teachers. My mom was a special needs teacher at my high school in Ontario, Canada. My brother was a teacher, too. My first job after graduating from college was in South Korea teaching English. I took to it immediately and never looked back. I earned my teaching degree in Australia and have worked in Bangkok and Canada in various teaching roles, mostly with early learners. Even after all these years, I have never felt “the Sunday blues.”

Which K-12 teacher made the biggest impact on your own life?

Ms. Cook, my second grade teacher! I’ll never forget looking out into the audience at one of my ballet concerts and seeing her sitting there in the audience. It was a Saturday, too! This was such an impactful experience for me. Honoring my own students’ interests and achievements outside of school by simply showing up as a witness is something I prioritize as a teacher. In fact, at eight months pregnant I attended one of my student’s hockey games. [Editor’s note: I hope this hockey playing student looks back at this someday and can appreciate the awesomeness of this action!]

What is a professional inquiry of yours today?

How do support early learning teachers?

Eleven out of my fourteen years in teaching have been focused on early learning. Given what we know about the importance of brain development and socio-emotional learning at these ages, I believe that the best teachers have to be placed in early years classrooms.

How are you inquiring into this?

Peter Gray’s Free to Learn

Alison Gopnik’s The Gardener and the Carpenter

Lisa Murphy’s Lisa Murphy on Being Child Centered

What is a personal inquiry of yours today?

How do I get closer to achieving a work-life balance?

How are you inquiring into this?

As a new mom in a new leadership position, I’m constantly riddled with guilt about not feeling like I can “do it all” or to the level that I set for myself. I meet regularly with a counselor to support my mental health. I have a supportive partner who reminds me that “it takes a village.” I have a running buddy who is also a trusted mentor. Finally, I am lucky to be surrounded by good people (including a very understanding administration).

To improve the teaching profession, what three ideas would you advocate for and why?

1) Focus more attention on the early years and the roots of progressive teaching

Provide top-notch professional development and action research to early learning teachers. And, while IB offers so much good, we need to remember that it’s rooted in the soil of many philosophies and theories of teaching and learning, such as Montessori and Reggio Emilio. Learning more about these precursors helps us deepen our connection to our inquiry-based pedagogy.

2) Listen and Care

Relationships come first. It’s vital to understand how hard everyone’s working right now with the pandemic; whether that’s ensuring physical safety or psychological safety. This all takes its toll and I’ve found that simply listening to people (not jumping straight to problem solving) often makes a profound difference. I started something called the Snack Club (based on Montessori’s Breakfast Club idea) where I provide healthy food in my office. This has become a gathering place for students and teachers to come together and be nurtured, appreciated and listened to.

3) Support teacher collaboration

Classrooms are often siloed and teachers can feel isolated from one another. Yet we know that observing one another in action is one of the best ways of pushing instructional practice (and learning more about students). Everyone should be offered the time and flexibility to visit each other’s classrooms and collaborate regularly.

"You gotta see this!”

This tip came from a performing arts teacher who helped one of my students with ‘reader’s block’: Karaoke App (iPad). Rather than reading the words, she sings them!

Thank you, Rebecca! Who’s next? You are! Email me: kimberly@inquirypartners.com