It makes sense that for someone who loves language, casual conversations played a pivotal role in her trajectory to become a language teacher. Modern Languages faculty member Claire Shea grew up in Vermont, where she fell in love with the Spanish language during high school. As an undergrad at Wellesley College, she studied Spanish and cultural anthropology. She was leaning towards a career in cultural anthropology, specifically, qualitative research jobs in the healthcare industry where she had interned. Her senior year, she gave a presentation to other Wellesley students about her junior year abroad in Spain.
“One of my professors came up to me afterwards and basically said, ‘That was a really good presentation. I think you’d be an excellent teacher. Have you ever thought about teaching?’”
Claire had never thought about it, but she was intrigued. The professor knew about a position at a charter school on Cape Cod. “I visited to interview, loved it, and I’ve never looked back,” she says. After three years of teaching, Claire started thinking about getting her master’s degree. “I was talking to a coworker at a social gathering and he asked if I had heard of the language program at Middlebury College.”
She did her research and then applied for the master’s in Spanish program. The program involved two summers at Middlebury and a year in Madrid, Spain.
“I was so excited to do this program,” says Claire. “What drew me in was the language pledge. If you do a graduate degree in a language, it’s important to be immersed in the language. The pledge is you only speak in Spanish for the entirety of the program, 24/7. It was a very intense, but very fun, almost like Spanish camp for adults.”
In Madrid, Claire was also able to immerse herself in her other passion—Latin dance—taking classes and dancing socially whenever she had a chance. After she finished her master’s, she looked at teaching internationally and ended up at an American international school in Jamaica for one year. It was a great experience, but Claire decided she wanted to be back closer to friends and family.
In her second year at Milton, Claire is teaching Spanish 2 and Spanish 4. “I love Spanish 2, because I enjoy grammar. At Middlebury, I took grammar-heavy courses that were pretty nerdy, like an entire course on prepositions. I would love to go back and take the subjunctive course! I find the grammar so interesting, so I enjoy teaching it as well. But, on the other hand, I also enjoy Spanish 4 because it’s a little deeper. Not as many games and competitions, but rather reading and discussions on the history in Mexico and Mexican culture, and how that’s related to how we live in the U.S.”
Claire says the she also brings her cultural anthropology knowledge into Spanish 4. “When we talk about events such as Cortés coming to America, I teach them the idea of an emic perspective or insider perspective, versus etic perspective or outsider perspective.”
Claire continues to be involved in Latin dance. She is the faculty advisor for Ritmo, the student Latin dance club. “It’s very much student-led, but once in a while I’ll give them feedback or a few ideas. It’s been a highlight of being at Milton. As an immersive language teacher, you are sometimes limited in your relationships with students, especially beginner students, because they can only speak to you in limited Spanish. So I love this chance to get to know students, in English, who also share a passion of mine in dance.”
Claire also organizes Spring Dance Concert and helps out with Winter Dance Concert. And outside of school, she dances with Boston Touch, a team that focuses on bachata, a style of social dance from the Dominican Republic.