LEARNIN CONSTRUCTING

Lesley McTague, Upper School Maker Teacher, Inspires Students to Make Ideas Tangible

The most powerful learning experiences are . . .

Unexpected

Lesley McTague’s classroom is unusual. It isn’t quiet, there are power tools and lasers, and you’re liable to come away messy. Questions are explored with curious minds and active hands. Failures aren’t just uncommon, they’re expected— that’s when the best learning happens! All are part of the daily happenings for McTague in her first year guiding our Upper School students through the learning laboratory that is their Maker Space.

Personal

McTague took a fascinating path to teaching and to Greenwich Country Day. Growing up, art was always her constant. “Traveling between countries and cultures, perpetually being the ‘new kid’ in schools, I found that drawing was a way for a quiet girl like me to gain some recognition from my peers.”

That talent grew into a focus of study as she attended a high school centered on the arts where her teachers cultivated her skills and ambition. “All the teachers treated our efforts and our dedication to our chosen specialty (be it fine arts, theater, music, dance, literary arts, culinary arts) seriously and as such, we took our own growth and development seriously as well,” McTague shared. “It was therefore exciting to be ambitious with our projects because we were eager to push ourselves and see what more we could learn and accomplish.”

That ambition led to the Maryland Institute College of Art and then to Harvard Graduate School of Design. Art had evolved from interest, to passion, to