Each month, the school board chooses a staff member to highlight and celebrate at their meeting. This month's staff person is listed below. 

Honoring Trevor Tait

1) How long have you been working at Twinfield and in what capacity/roles?

I was first hired for a 4/5 position in the fall of 2009 teaching classes in Design Technology, Art and Business to middle and high school students.  I became full time for Design Technology and Art in the fall of 2011 and have continued in that role.  Among the many classes I have enjoyed teaching include Drawing, Stained Glass, Jewelry, Pottery, Robotics, Engineering, CAD Drafting, Filmmaking, Canoe and Paddle making, Wilderness paddling, Mapping and Navigation, Architecture, Honors Geology (co-taught with the science teacher) and more.  In addition to classes, I coached the boys varsity soccer team for 3 years, ran a fencing club, and mentored numerous students in a variety of Renaissance studies.

2) What are two of your favorite projects you have spearheaded?

The 8 Grade Canoe Journey Project: This project, co-lead by Tracey Witherspoon and I, was a cross curricular, academic, experiential and hands on experience for 8th graders that had a profound impact on many students.  For a full year students would work toward a 4 day wilderness canoe trip in the Adirondacks of New York State.  They learned how to make a personal paddle from selecting the tree to final decoration, worked as part of a team to make a cedar strip canoe that we took on our trip, studied Homer's Odyssey and epic/heroic journeys, and gained camping and wilderness canoeing skills.  On the trip they worked as part of small groups to cook meals, explored the area in small day trips and attended "classes" in the outdoors including wilderness first aid, forest ecology, navigation, surveying, journal writing, nature drawing and more.

LEGO Robotics:  When I first came to twinfield I inherited nine neglected LEGO robotics kits.  Ever since then, I have integrated them into many of my classes and used them to teach everything from simple machines to power technology to coding to physics.  Robotic engineering of all sorts is integral to the modern world and to a multitude of experiences, devices, and facets of our tech permeated environment.  Giving students knowledge, experience and expertise with these tools and methods is crucial in providing them with agency in the technological world they inhabit and will serve them well in a future where employment and security is uncertain and challenging.

3) What are you excited about this year at Twinfield?

For the first time I am teaching a year long Filmmaking class to high school students and it is fantastic.  Students are engaged, motivated and eager to explore the topic. They have already produced spectacular results from their assignments and are excited to be working toward producing a class short film in the spring semester.  The possibilities for learning new skills, techniques and knowledge that is relevant today is exciting and profound.