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I tried to be Carrie Foster...
September 12, 2025
When I first moved to Santiago, Chile to teach at the International School Nido de Aguilas, I was assigned to co-teach 9th grade World History with someone who would later become a dear colleague and friend, Carrie Foster.
Carrie had already been at Nido for a couple of years, and she was the lead teacher for the course. While I had taught World History for most of my career, this was her version of the class, and she knew exactly how she wanted it to run.
I walked into that first meeting with her not really knowing what to expect, but by the end of it, I could tell immediately that she was the kind of teacher you want to work with—organized, thoughtful, creative, and absolutely committed to her students.
This was 2012.
I was brand new to Nido, brand new to South America, and filled with energy about this next chapter of my career. I had been teaching for over a decade and felt confident in my ability as a teacher, but I was also excited to learn.
When I took the job, I remember a comment made by Don Bergman, the Head of School, when he said, “The best professional development I can provide you is the teacher next door to your classroom.”
That line stuck with me.
And sitting there next to Carrie in our first meeting, I thought, “Well, I guess I’m about to find out if that’s true.”
It was.
Carrie started taking me through how she had structured the course. How she had woven together a variety of texts and resources in a way that gave students both depth and accessibility.
For one unit, she leaned on a particular source that sparked student interest. For another, she brought in something different, but always with a rigorous university-level textbook in the background to anchor everything.
She built in research and source analysis, skill development, and opportunities for students to connect history to the world around them.
I sat there thinking, “Wow. This is really good.”
So, by the time we had moved into unit two, I had privately set a goal for myself.
My professional development plan for that semester was not a workshop or a book or a conference.
My plan was simple.
I’m going to be Carrie Foster.
I laugh as I write this, but I thought, “With full agreement on the goals of the course, the skills taught, the sources we are going to use, why not just envelop all of this into your teaching and just go for it. Be Carrie Foster. Run your classroom like she does."
This was entirely in my head.
I didn’t tell Carrie. I was just the new guy in town, so I thought, why not?
So, I tried to be Carrie Foster.
Carrie’s 90-minute lessons were broken into five parts. Mine had always been divided into three. That was my rhythm--three separate chunks of learning in every class. But I told myself that if Carrie was doing five, then I’d see if I could do a five-part lesson too.
I went for it.
And almost immediately, I felt the wheels start to wobble. It took like two weeks.
I was rushing through activities. I was glancing at the clock and panicking when I was only on part two and knew I should be on part four. I was skimming across the surface of content that I usually would have dug deeper into. It wasn’t that the content was hard—I had taught this material for years. It was that the rhythm wasn’t mine.
And that’s when it hit me…
I’m not Carrie Foster. (Imagine that)
While I sort of knew this, I was confronted with the reality that my natural rhythm as a teacher was slower, built on three larger chunks of learning instead of five smaller ones. My frequency as a teacher could not jive with a five-part lesson. I watched Carrie and she could nail it and did. The kids loved it. Carrie was a world class teacher. The thing was that I couldn't do it.
It was actually a really cool realization.
When I looked at my broader life, the way I move through my days, my weekends, my role as a father and husband, I don't move fast. I move, but not rushed. I move, but my frequency is low.
That was the problem with a five part lesson. It clashed with my natural rhythm of life.
And when we teach, we are us. We are who we are.
If I'm going to be the best teacher I can be, me, Brad Cartwright, then my teaching should be in rhythm with how I move through life.
So I shifted.
When Carrie and I met to discuss our next unit, we agreed on the type of assessment we were going to give. We agreed on the sources we were going to use. We agreed on the essential skills we were going to teach. We decided on how many lessons we were going to give the unit.
We shared, we discussed, we agreed, and we gave each other the trust and confidence to structure those lessons, pace those lessons, share those lessons with the students in a way that fit us as individual humans.
Collaboration is about trust, it's about respect, and it's about an acceptance that we are at our best when we are our full teacher-selves with students.
When I look back, I realize my plan was flawed at the most basic level.
And as the year progressed, we were always aligned…
We hit the same benchmarks, our students were equally prepared, and the learning outcomes were strong across the board.
But our classrooms were very different spaces, but they were true reflections of who each of us are as humans.
To this day, Carrie is one of the best teachers and colleagues with whom I have worked. And that year working together showed me the power of what I call true teacher collaboration.
It's not about sameness.
Collaboration is about respect, clarity, and confidence in the strengths that each teacher brings to the table.
The best collaborative teams do not flatten each other into one mold.
The best collaborative environments open up space for each person’s rhythm, personality, and professional style to thrive while still holding to the same big picture goals.
And that's the irony.
My inability to be Carrie Foster turned out to be one of the best professional development experience of my career. Because in the process of trying to emulate her, I learned about my own style and rhythms as a teacher.
As my career progressed, I held on to that experience and learned to trust it.
So, as you head into your own classrooms and planning meetings, remember to always maintain and honor the person-teacher that you are.
Trust yourself, trust your colleagues, and trust that our differences make for a richer, deeper, more human school experience for our students.
See you next week.
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