Esther W. Kattef

Adjunct Lecturer on Education

Profile

In addition to her work at HGSE, Kattef teaches 10-11 year-old children at the Edward Devotion School in Brookline. Her work focuses on creating a successful learning community in which children are encouraged to take responsibility for their own learning as well as for the well-being and learning of their peers. Students manage transitions, facilitate lessons and activities, and take responsibility for each other in groups and in the classroom. Her classroom meeting, which is run by the students, has appeared on channel 7 and on CNN. She consults with school systems in the Boston area, supporting teachers as they form collaborative, safe and sustainable learning communities in which they can examine their practice. Esther believes that it is in communities that students and teachers can process their thinking and examine how they know what they know and why they make the choices they make. She has written curriculum to support Brookline’s fifth grade social studies units on ancient cultures. Kattef has coauthored Multiple Choice: A Handbook for Individualizing in the Classroom and Every Step Counts, in Service Learning in the Middle School. She has taught in the Peaceable Schools Program at Lesley College, and has run institutes and workshops for Educators For Social Responsibility.

Degrees

• Ed.M., Harvard University