WELCOME TO MY RESUME

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PERSONAL STATEMENT

I am happiest when I'm in a position where I can inspire students to strive for their best selves, engage in meaningful learning experiences , and encourage creative, complex thinking. The opportunity to see students from vastly different circumstances has reaffirmed my core belief that all young people need guidance and deserve the best education possible.

ABOUT CATHERINE PATE

I’d like to live in a world where students engage in intellectual inquiry, where they quote everything from Homer to Shakespeare to Tina Fey to try to answer life’s big questions, and where avocados and dark chocolate are served at every meal. I’m Catherine Pate and I’ve used my twenty-one years of teaching experience challenging students to question their own assumptions, designing innovative curriculum, working collaboratively with colleagues to ensure a vibrant school community, and appealing to students’ imaginations to create a rich and fulfilling learning environment.

After ten years in the States in urban public schools, I pursued my dream to teach overseas, landing at Korea International School in Seoul and then later at Singapore American School. The transition from Dallas to Asia also involved a transition from Social Studies to English, where I've had the opportunity to explore an entirely new side of teaching and to continue to create and innovate in the classroom.

When I’m not teaching, planning for teaching, or reading to inform my teaching, you can find me traveling, learning to play the ukulele, coaching swimming, organizing storytelling and poetry events, or seeing how high I can get my cat to jump.

My son and I experiencing sumo in Tokyo (2016)

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

My Roles & Responsibilities

Traditional Resume

SINGAPORE AMERICAN SCHOOL
Teacher- Writing, English/Language Arts

2018 to 2024

Singapore American School (SAS) is an independent non-profit school that offers a Pre-K through Grade 12 American college preparatory curriculum to a multinational body of students. The high school includes 1,224 students representing 52 nationalities and boasts 204 unique high school course options, approximately 150 student clubs, an established advisory program, and a robust diversity, equity and inclusion initiative.

Curriculum Design and Development / Teaching Highlights

Designed and taught several course curriculums with the explicit purpose of aligning them to our DEI initiatives, ensuring that they are more cultural responsive. Examples of this work include the following:

AT Nonfiction and Rhetoric is an advanced student-driven writing course that focuses on publication, argument, rhetorical persuasion. The student-writers decide what they write (content) and how they write it (form), and they must collaborate on teams who innovate together, reach consensus and support each other’s growth. Students engage with their audience regularly through publication on a class-created website, through community events, and a printed compilation of essays at the end of the year, available to the SAS and Singapore community.

Events coordinated in the 2023-24 school year:

AT Writing Retreat, Telunas, Indonesia
Library Debate: Choosing the website name
Website Launch and Publication
Mentorship program with writers from Jom Media
Book Publication
Book Launch

Students collaborate on teams who innovate together, reach consensus and support each other’s growth. The Copyediting Team, Design Team and Marketing and Events Team not only each play a crucial role in the final publication, but their learn and develop essential skills of inclusion, collaboration and consensus- building by developing their own processes, style-guides, and accountability systems.

Students all complete semester-long writing portfolios where they are encouraged to show creative risk-taking, experimentation with a range of rhetorical figures, specific considerations of audience, and thorough ideation and revision processes.

The spirit of creativity, risk-taking, peer feedback and collaboration has created a lively atmosphere of joy, passion, and a tight-knit community.

The idea for AT Nonfiction and Rhetoric originated with a former SAS student, Declan Sheehan (class of 2021). Click here or on the image to read about the development of the course from a student's perspective.

The course began with a 3-day tech-free writing retreat in Telunas, Indonesia. The students bonded through team-building activities and game, writing workshops, peer feedback, and norm-setting.

Hear what students have to say about AT Nonfiction and Rhetoric.

Including AT Nonfiction and Rhetoric, in my six years at SAS, I have led, designed, and rewritten several courses in the department with the eye towards making them more reflective of the diversity of students that attend our school as well as broader contemporary cultural conversations. I have substantially expanded the literary and nonfiction options for our students, especially in Asian Literature and AP Language and Composition, among others. This revision focused on creating class community through inclusive practices as well as ordering more diverse texts.

Courses Taught, A Complete List

Courses with an asterisk note ones I've designed or substantially rewritten.

AT Nonfiction and Rhetoric*

Asian Literature*

World Literature: Myths and Monsters*

Contemporary American Literature*

AP Language and Composition*

English 9*

British Literature: The World of Shakespeare

World Studies

Students to explore novels, poetry, and pop culture texts-- like anime, K-dramas, Hong Kong Film, and other media-- created and produced in Asia or by Asian authors abroad, including local Singaporean voices. While many of the texts focus on Singapore, China, Japan, India, or South Korea, there is space for students to bring their own backgrounds and identities into text selection. They will read Singaporean poetry, and write some of their own, inspired by their immediate surroundings, and sharpening their analysis skills. Finally, they will conclude the semester by selecting a modern, Asian pop culture text to research and analyze. This inquiry project allows them to investigate Asian pop culture, their own media use and tastes, and Asia’s cultural impact on the modern world. This is an engaging, relevant, and choice-driven course that features texts and voices that students don’t often see in their English courses.

Here what students have to say about Asian Lit.

Club and Activities Sponsorship

National English Honors Society (NEHS): Raised visibility of the honors society through more effective outreach and event planning, including a transparent and effective peer tutoring program, community engagement with digital content creation and engaging public events like Poetry Out Loud. Revamped service credit system to include volunteer opportunities with measurable impact.
Interim Semester: Coordinated and chaperoned international learning trips to Japan & Nepal
Impromptu Team: Students compete in a public speaking competition to compose and deliver a 3-5 minute speech with only 1 minute of preparation, based on an unseen prompt.
Frontline: A club founded by students during the pandemic to sew masks for Frontline workers; grew to dozens of members and expanded outreach outside of healthcare
Other clubs: Songwriting Club, Usher Society, Raise Your Voice

KOREA INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL

Teacher, English/Language Arts, AP World History

ENGLISH 10 AND 12

August 2014 to Present

Korea International School, Seongnam, South Korea

Designed, implemented and taught Grade 10 British Literature and Grade 12 Thematic Literature in a collaborative setting. As a 1:1 school, teaching at KIS demands an agility with digital as well as traditional platforms. On campus, involved in curriculum design, lead department and cross-disciplinary initiatives—Poetry Out Loud, Story Slam, Textures Literature and Art Magazine, serve on the Experiential Education Design Team for Grade 12, coach swimming (Middle School coach 2 years, High School coach, 1 year), present in KIS Talks Professional Development Sessions.

GRADE LEVEL LEAD

June 2012 - May 2014

As the team lead of Grade 10, I facilitated meetings with Grade 10 faculty, addressing student balance, assessment, collaboration, and student needs. I also supported and helped facilitate the grade level outdoor (experiential) education trips.

TRIP LEAD, EXPERIENTIAL EDUCATION

2016-2018

During my time at KIS, I was part of the leadership team on various domestic and international experiential education and service trips. Duties included planning itineraries, communicating expectations with teachers and parents, acting as a liaison between activities and tour operators and the school administration, leading activities, chaperoning, and collaborating with other teachers. I co-planned and co-led the Grade 12 3-day Fall EE trip, the Grade 12 1-day Spring EE trip, a week-long service trip to Cambodia, and a week-long service trip to Tanzania. I have also chaperoned a week-long Habitat-for-Humanity trip to Indonesia.

AP WORLD HISTORY

August 2017 to 2018

WOODROW WILSON HIGH SCHOOL, DALLAS TEXAS

Social Studies

AP HUMAN GEOGRAPHY, AP WORLD HISTORY, WORLD GEOGRAPHY

November 2004 - May 2014

Taught Advanced Placement Human Geography for 5 years to Grades 9-12, a college-level course spanning a myriad of global topics – including population, migration, cultural, economic development and agricultural issues, among others. Annual pass rate exceeded national average. Taught Advanced Placement World History for 3 years to Grade 10, a course spanning 10,000 years of history, focusing on non-European global interactions and contributions. Taught all levels of World Geography to Grade 9, including general education, ESL, Pre-AP and Pre-IB World Geography for 8 years; served as lead teacher for 5 years.

WORLD AFFAIRS COUNCIL, TEACHER TRAINER

2006-2014

Led teacher training sessions regarding a wide variety of internationally-minded educational material.

FRENCH I AND II

January 2003-May 2004

DW Carter High School, Dallas Independent School District

Taught French I and II to all grade levels

KIS works with Rustic Pathways to increase global awareness, build human connections, help those in need and nurture service-minded global citizens.

SERVICE TRIP: CAMBODIA

CAMBODIA SERVICE TRIP 2017

EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCE

What I’ve Learned

MA, UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN IOWA

April 2015 to December 2016

Completed a Masters in Educational Leadership through a robust program where students are placed in cohorts with their peers from all over the world

BA, UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN

1998-2001

Earned a Bachelors of Arts Degree in French with a minor in History

Graduated with University Honors from the Liberal Arts Plan I Honors Program

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT ARLINGTON

2002-2003

Earned teaching certification while completing first year of teaching

INSTITUTO BRITÁNICO, INTERNATIONAL HOUSE, COSTA RICA

2004

Earned Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults, Cambridge University (CELTA)

THE DALLAS INSTITUTE FOR HUMANITIES AND CULTURE

2011-2013

Graduate of the Sue Rose Summer Institute for Teachers