Melissa McPhail

Background

About Melissa McPhail

My first job ever was working at a day care center. While that may not seem to apply to have much relevance to the careers I have pursued, this first job taught me some extremely valuable skills that have helped to this day. 1) Communication is key. It is not only important to be understood but to understand the needs of others. Interpreting the needs of half a dozen children under the age of three made future communication a joy. While working as the tuxedo rental consultant of Jos. A. Bank, I had to interpret the vision of soon-to-be brides and grooms and set expectations for those renting suits. Effective and regular communication minimized issues and actually increased sales of off the rack suits in addition to increasing the amount of tuxedos being rented. 2) You have to remain flexible. Nothing will force you to keep on your toes more than a two year old. I learned to utilize this most effectively while teaching at Woodley Leadership Academy. Coming into the classroom, my students were scoring low on the NWEA testing and traditional instruction did not engage them in learning. I quickly learned to make lessons that met them at their level and challenged them while also incorporating their interests. I also treated them with an abundance of compassion while maintaining the expectations I had set from the start. By the second round of testing, my students were solidly reaching their estimated goals with the majority exceeding projected expectations. 3) Knowledge should be shared. One of my favorite things about working with the children was the millions of questions they would ask everyday. I adored sharing information and explanations with them and if I didn't know, we would look it up together and find the solution. While the applications of this are easily applied to the field of education, I believe this philosophy works in ever field for everyone's benefit. In the classroom it may look like entertaining and encouraging the curiosity of students. In other fields it may look like collaboration with others. During my time at Hackett Catholic Prep, I regularly met with other teachers to create a better English curriculum and a more cross curricular approach.