Each week in the Friday Parent Page, we profile an employee to help the greater Proctor community get to know the individuals make us who we are. Read more about this past week's profile on Ellie Moore, English Department Faculty, Gulick Dorm, Varsity Soccer, Girls JV Lacrosse coach.
When Ellie Moore first toured Proctor as a prospective faculty member alongside Assistant Head of School Karin Clough and English Department Chair Shauna Turnbull, campus was quiet with students on summer vacation. However, even in the absence of energy in Andover, Ellie felt an uncommon sense of community. Over the past six school years, Ellie has not only called Proctor “home”, but has helped countless students embrace it as their home, too. “Once I got to know the people here and the students arrived, I fell in love with the authenticity of this place. There is this sense that everyone here is striving to be the best version of themselves, and we are all supporting each other on that journey, regardless of our age, our status as teacher or student, or role in the community.”
Ellie currently teaches English, coaches varsity soccer and girls varsity lacrosse, and serves as an advisor and dorm parent in Gulick House. For the past five summers, Ellie has worked toward her Master’s Degree at Middlebury College’s Bread Loaf School of English, graduating this past summer. “I have an amazing department head in Shauna who encouraged me to apply to Bread Loaf. Every summer I have been able to directly apply what I learned into my curriculum at Proctor, and so appreciate this freedom to experiment with my curriculum and what I teach based on my coursework. Whether it was my Bread Loaf course in Queer Pedagogy that I applied to my Identity in Literature course at Proctor or the horror class at Breadloaf that I was able to evolve into a Horror in Literature class, my coursework has fueled my teaching.”
Three years ago, Ellie had the opportunity to join Melanie Maness (one of Ellie’s mentors and good friends who will be officiating her wedding to ski coach and math teacher Justin Sperry this summer) in co-teaching Proctor’s Culture and Conflict course. Melanie has embraced Ellie’s passion for bringing her own coursework into their curriculum as they incorporated a unit this winter focused on disabilities after Ellie’s summer course on disabilities in literature. “I am incredibly thankful to have been able to study at Bread Loaf and to have had the support in our department to bring that learning back to the classroom. I am so excited for my English colleague Jen (Summers) to begin her own Master’s program at Bread Loaf this summer as well!”
