Mrs. Sarah Dyer, a seventh grade English teacher, is leaving ASL after her maternity leave, which starts on October 29 and officially ends on August 24. Mrs. Dyer has been at ASL since 2011, making this her ninth year.
After leaving a school she had been working at in North Shore, Massachusetts, Mrs. Dyer was looking to teach in the UK in order to be near her family. Mrs. Dyer discovered ASL through a child that she was teaching in Boston. She worked well with the child, and when the child moved to London to start attending ASL, Mrs. Dyer researched the school further. She believed in ASL’s mission statement and liked what she was seeing online about how they worked as a school.
Mrs. Dyer has had many roles within ASL. When she first came to the school, she taught both English and social studies, and she did so for four years. Then, when the school decided to have different teachers for English and social studies, Mrs. Dyer continued to teach English.
In addition to being an English teacher, Mrs. Dyer has been a seventh-grade advisor and has worked on the Advisory Committee, helping to improve advisories in the middle school. She also did Service Learning for about five years, taking a group of high schoolers to a special needs school, Swiss Cottage School, every week.
One of Mrs. Dyer’s favorite topics to teach in seventh grade English was the vignette unit, where students read the book Behind You by Jacqueline Woodson. She talked about how the unit incorporates the writing she likes to do, and she really enjoyed reading what her students wrote.
One of the aspects that Mrs. Dyer has enjoyed most about ASL has been getting to know her students. “I love getting to know students, who they are, and what they bring and learning from them; that’s why I teach,” Mrs. Dyer said.
She has many relationships with her colleagues and will miss them when she leaves. “I’m really going to miss my colleagues. I think the seventh-grade team is a very strong team,” Mrs. Dyer said. “It’s very student-centered, and I have learned an enormous amount from working with them.”
Mrs. Dyer’s last day at ASL was on October 28, and she is leaving the school primarily due to the fact that she is having a second child. Mrs. Dyer explained how she wants to spend more time being a mother and taking care of her two kids.
She said, “I think your children are only little once, and before they start school themselves, it’s nice to be home if you can.”
