Alexandra Hartley

Alexandra (Lexi) has consistently helped me and many other students over the course of the past semester and a half to grow as a learner, a student, a teacher and humble human being. Lexi teaches a double-period English/Social Studies class for 10th-12th grade each day called Facing History. During class, Lexi is an active participant in all our work and pushes each student, myself included, to go beyond the work they believe they are capable of doing. She leaves plenty of room for students to make mistakes and to explore new ideas through many means including class discussions, activities called “Where Do You Stand” and seminar style lessons. She has helped me to grow in many areas as both a research and creative writer. She gives constructive feedback on all work and is more than willing to take time out of her own day and sit with a student and explain to them her thinking and what she believes needs work. Not only that, but she is willing to work with students personally to complete work or edit. Beyond helping me grow academically, Lexi has always been a stable adult that I feel more than comfortable going to in any event. On two occasions have I found myself in her classroom after hours (sometimes quite long after) discussing an assortment of things from an assignment due (or past due) to a discussion we had in class to my personal political beliefs on a matter. And going even beyond this, she has always made time to sit and chat with me on many occasions about the struggles that I have had throughout Facing History which is a rigorous and rich class that focuses on past and living history especially surrounding events such as genocide and war etc. On one occasion I was remarakably behind on a paper and I sent her an email to ask if we could have a conversation. She responded immediately and we met during lunch the next day over pizza and a salad and discussed the concerns and emotions that I was experiencing. She helped me to work through what I was feeling and beyond it in order to be able to be more productive and to complete my work. I am honestly beyond grateful to have had Lexi as a teacher and I hope to find myself in her classroom again. I think that it is rare to find a teacher so dedicated to their students and absolutely humble in the work that they do.

Maya Soto