Greetings on this crisp Sunday,

We are excited to announce that the newest edition of our magazine, Swain Matters, is now in the mail. We hope you will take time to read it - there is a lot of interesting information about recent, as well as upcoming events and activities at Swain. 

As a 'sneak peek', here is an article about one of our teachers - we hope you enjoy it!

A Conversation with Karin Reger

As a 12-year-old, Karin Reger knew she wanted to work with children; she would go to her cousin's child care center and play with the children there. Fast forward a few years, and she was at West Chester University, majoring in early childhood education.

The Upper Perkiomen Valley native has been the director of a child care center, and taught lower elementary grades before beginning work on her Master's degree in education at Cedar Crest College.

Mrs. Reger joined the Swain faculty eight years ago as a fourth grade teacher. She is not the only member of her family at Swain: her daughter Madi began at Swain as a Kindergarten student and is now a seventh grader. And her husband Joe joined Swain's staff two years ago; he is now Swain's Director of Technology. The family also includes Shelby, a freshman at Montgomery County Community College.

Away from Swain, Mrs. Reger teaches CCD classes, and loves to garden, read and hike. Her annual Auction "Teacher Treasure" of offering a hike with Swain students is always a popular item.

How did you find Swain?

Former Swain teacher Anize Appel was a classmate at Cedar Crest, and she kept encouraging me to sign up to sub at Swain. She said that once I did, I would never want to go anywhere else. She was right: I fell in love.   

Tell us about teaching fourth grade:

I love fourth grade! The kids' sense of humor, and teaching them independence; it's such a huge leap from third grade. They also better understand teamwork, cooperation, and working together.

About John Hunter and his World Peace Game (Mr. Hunter visited Swain in April of last year):

Before he came, I read his book (World Peace Game and other 4th Grade Achievements) and watched his TED Talk. I felt that his teaching style is what mine is developing to be: the classroom and learning belong to the student. I step back, they're in charge of the environment, and they take over. That's in John Hunter's grand scheme, what he's trying to facilitate. And that's what inspired the World Peace Game.

When he came to visit Swain, the students were on the edge of their seats. They were not overwhelmed with the prospect of big problems - they 'know' they can solve them. They seem to be saying, "Just give them to us!"

As I read his book, I knew this was something I wanted to offer my students. If Swain was going to offer any teachers the opportunity to attend his teacher training I wanted them to pick me.

You were chosen! Tell us about your experience at John Hunter's Master Class this past summer:

Chris (Burns, middle school history teacher) and I went to Rutgers' Prep for a week in July. (pictured: Mr. Burns, far left, and Mrs. Reger with John Hunter)

The training was about the game, but it wasn't just about the game. We talked a lot about, as a teacher how can you prepare your students to solve world problems? It's all about giving them the space to think about any problem.

The other participants were from all over the world, including Australia and Canada. There were administrators and teachers, and most were familiar with his work.

As part of the curriculum we got a list of materials and instruction about how to build the World Peace Game, and we are both certified to play the game. We're now working on plans to offer a one-week camp in the summer of 2015, for students to play the World Peace Game.

How has this experience impacted your teaching?

I'm more conscientious about students: are they becoming more in charge, and if not, how do I get them there? I find myself working backwards to make sure I get them there, and asking, what role do I as the teacher play?

Any last words?

Here's a story about failing: I had a conversation with one of my students about trying archery. He said, "What if I fail?" I told him, "Then you've failed. And if you don't try, then you'll always wonder if you could, so you should always try." We need to allow them to fail, and give them the tools to know how to handle it.