I tried to be Carrie Foster...

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 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.

And here’s the context.

This was 2012.

I was brand new to Nido, brand new to South America, and filled with energy about this next chapter in 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.

I’ll never forget something that happened six months earlier, in my interview with Don Bergman, the Head of School who hired me. I asked him about the school’s professional development budget.

He looked at me over Skype—back before Zoom was a thing—and 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 Foster in our first meeting, I thought, “Well, I guess I’m about to find out if that’s true.”

Carrie started talking me through how she had structured the course. 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 good.”

And 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 this: I’m going to be Carrie Foster.

I laugh as I write this, but I thought, “Why not just envelop all of this stuff into your teaching and just go for it. Be Carrie Foster.”

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 big 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.

And almost immediately, I felt the wheels start to wobble.

I was rushing through activities. I was glancing at the clock and panicking when I was only on part two and knew I needed to get to part four. I was skimming across the surface of content that I usually liked to go deep 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)

My natural rhythm as a teacher was slower, steadier, built on three larger chunks of learning instead of five smaller ones.

And that’s my point this week.

Collaboration does not mean uniformity.

It does not mean two teachers march into class with identical lesson plans and the same pacing guide taped to the wall.

True collaboration is about clarity and trust. It is about aligning on the destination while giving each other the freedom to take the route that fits who we are as teachers.

My plan was flawed at the most basic level.

So we set the units, decided on the type of assessment we’d give, committed to the same the texts. We knew where we needed to end up and when. And from there, she broke her lessons into five parts, and I stuck with my three.

And in the end, 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.

That’s what I want to say this week about teacher collaboration.

It is not about sameness.

It 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. They open up space for each person’s rhythm, personality, and professional style to thrive while still holding to the same big picture goals.

And here’s the irony.

My failure 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 myself as a teacher.

I learned to trust my own internal rhythm.

And I learned that collaboration, done well, is about alignment, not conformity.

So, as you head into your own classrooms and planning meetings, I’ll leave you with this: collaboration is built on trust.

Trust yourself, trust your colleagues, and trust that our differences make for a richer school experience for the students.

See you next week.

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