Laura Parris (Upper Division - ELA)
Laura was born on an Air Force base in Glendale, Arizona because her parents were in the Air Force, but she moved to Massachusetts when she was one-and-a-half years old. She grew up in the small seaside town of Scituate and attended the Scituate Public Schools. Laura received her Bachelor of Arts from Colby College in Waterville, Maine where she majored in English with a concentration in creative writing and double minored in philosophy and Jewish studies. During her junior year of college, Laura spent a semester studying abroad at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. While she was very nervous about being overseas for so long, these were four of the best months of Laura’s life, as she had the opportunity to do extensive traveling and to learn about other cultures. After college, Laura moved to New York City and received her Master of Arts in the Teaching of English from Teachers College, Columbia University.
After growing up in a small seaside town and going to college in rural Maine, New York City was the last place in which Laura ever imagined herself. However, after graduate school, she wasn’t ready to leave the city, so she moved to Astoria and accepted a job at Q300. She has been here ever since and now can’t imagine herself living and teaching anywhere else. From the age of nine, Laura has always wanted to be a teacher, and she feels that teaching is what she was meant to do. By exposing students to a wide variety of literature, her hope is that students become not just better readers and writers but that students also learn about themselves and each other through peer discussion and through an analysis of timeless themes. Laura strives to instill in her students a sense of responsibility for their own learning as well as a sense of responsibility to themselves, to each other, and to the broader communities in which they live. Laura considers herself to be a lifelong learner, and she enjoys learning right alongside the students in this process of inquiry, exploration, and self-discovery.
Laura believes that kindness is the most valuable thing that we can offer to each other in this world, and she works hard to ensure that all students feel welcome and safe in her classes. Laura strongly believes that inclusion is a necessary prerequisite for learning, particularly in ELA classes, and she strives to help all students to find their own voices. Laura is constantly pushing herself outside of her comfort zone, and she views an inclusive classroom and school as integral for intellectual risk-taking for both teachers and students.
