Sarah Roggero
Education is still of great importance to Sarah Roggero’00, a Spanish teacher for 5th through 8th grade students at the Cathedral School for Boys, an all boys school in San Francisco. Fortunate to work in an environment where administrators, faculty, and students care deeply about each others' well-being, Sarah says, “It makes me feel like my work is less about a paycheck and more about encouraging others, and myself, to grow as learners and as humans.”
“I love the immediate feedback I get from my students,” Sarah says of her teaching experience. “I enjoy seeing my instruction work -- seeing those imaginary light bulbs light up over my students’ heads -- but I also appreciate the challenge of needing to shift my instruction when students are confused or frustrated.
“It's fun to be a language teacher because so much of language learning is interaction.” Sarah explains that many of her lesson plans are implemented through games such as Simon Says, Eye Spy, Mother May I, and Pictionary in beginning Spanish. “As students develop larger vocabularies, they begin to piece concepts together to enhance context and meaning, which is amazing to witness. This allows more advanced students to compose their own skits, commercials, weather reports, etc. These projects are often hilarious because students are so eager to express themselves and elicit a laugh from their peers. I also enjoy how much I get to know about my students.”
Sarah is appreciative of Westridge, saying it exposed her to many extraordinary educators. “As a student at Westridge, I liked my teachers. Now as a teacher, I see how so many of them were well versed in the best educational practices, approachable, and direct in their instruction. They also encouraged student participation and welcomed feedback. These are things that I strive to incorporate in my practice. I often think, ‘What would Teacher X do?’ when I'm struggling with a lesson that isn't going well. It gives me a model for my behavior and helps me strive to be a better teacher.
“Westridge also gave me a belief in the value of education, simply for the sake of learning. This motivation helped me enjoy knowledge and see education not as memorizing facts but synthesizing and producing my own ideas.”
In her free time, Sarah enjoys reading, biking, camping, hiking, and cooking for friends and family. She has become more involved with the Transition movement in San Francisco, something that is very important to her. “Transition seeks to create sustainable communities responding to environmental, economic, and energy concerns. We focus a lot on resilience and reskilling. I've organized bike tours this summer for Transition SF. We'll be visiting abandoned lots that have been transformed into urban farms, homes that have incorporated greywater and rainwater irrigation systems, and businesses that have implemented solar power.”
As a student at Westridge, Sarah was a Community Service co-head for her class and frequently participated in Friday Nights at Union Station. She ran cross country and track and participated in the initial peer counseling program, led by Ms. McCleese. Sarah recalls sunning on the quad and hearing the Madrigals sing during her days at Westridge, and has fond memories of her class work, including the geometry quilt she made for Ms. Donnely, the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn essay she wrote for Mrs. Axeen, designing a pulley system for 8th Grade Science with Mrs. De Kline, and writing letters (in Spanish) to Mr. Kaplan during the summer. She is still proud to have played George Gibbs in the 8th Grade production of Our Town and remembers the museums and bakeries of Madrid and Bilbao from her immersion trip to Spain, which she revisits when she takes her students abroad.