Grand Rapids — Erin Shadowens is a big believer in letting students learn through discovery and exploration, so she’s well-suited to her new position as principal of two of the district’s project- and place-based theme schools: C.A. Frost Environmental Science Academy Elementary and Blandford School.
Asked about her philosophy on education, Shadowens said some of it can be found in her book, “Critical Thinking in the Elementary Classroom,” which she wrote for the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. To summarize the rest, she channeled former teacher and psychologist Eleanor Duckworth, whose educational essay book, “The Having of Wonderful Ideas” is one of Shadowens’ favorites.
“I really believe that every kid should be given the opportunity to think of wonderful things and have wonderful realizations about the world,” said Shadowens. “If we create spaces for kids to have wonderful ideas, then a lot of the other puzzle pieces are going to fit together.”
SNN got to know more about Shadowens during a recent interview.
Other positions you have held in education: Shadowens got into education through Teach for America, which landed her a second-grade teaching role at Nolan Elementary-Middle School in Detroit. She also taught second and third grade at Brooklyn Prospect Downtown Elementary School in Brooklyn, New York, where she later served as head of instruction prior to her arrival at GRPS.
She’s also an adjunct professor at Relay Graduate School of Education, and she’s spent time educating new teachers as with New York City Teaching Fellows and Teach for New York.
What about jobs outside education? “My dream as a child was to work at Jersey Junction in East Grand Rapids — the ice cream shop. And that was my first non-babysitting job, so I’ve actually already done what I wanted to do when I grow up.”
Before she got into education, Shadowens wanted to be a lawyer. In pursuit of that goal, she interned with the Maryland League of Conservation Voters and “got to follow a private investigator around for a summer” while working for the New York Legal Aid Society’s juvenile rights division.
‘I feel very, very lucky to be part of the C.A. Frost and Blandford communities. This is an institution that has been around since way before my presence here, and my hope is that it’s going to be around for a very, very long time.’
— Principal Erin Shadowens
Education/degrees:
- Bachelor’s in liberal arts, St. John’s College
- Master’s in teaching, Relay Graduate School of Education
- Master’s in elementary curriculum, Teachers College at Columbia University
What drew you to C.A. Frost? Shadowens, who grew up in the East Grand Rapids area, said she was compelled by the idea of “being home” after working in New York. She said the Frost motto of “No child left inside” spoke to her as well.
“I spent a lot of my career in the charter world and in settings where outdoor play wasn’t always prioritized,” she said. “I think what a lot of schools have done, to their own detriment, is think that it’s an either/or — that you have to reduce play in order to get really good results. I think what C.A. Frost is really about is saying that we don’t really have to make that choice, and that those things serve each other.”
The chance to oversee the sixth-grade-only Blandford School was also a big selling point.
“Blandford is just an incredibly unique program, with the way the kids really have an immersive outdoor experience in all seasons. Also, there’s also a big focus on project-based and place-based learning. I just think that’s something really special in the district, that sixth-graders have a chance to have a really unique, one-of-a-kind experience that they wouldn’t have gotten anywhere else.”
Why did you want to become an administrator? It was a hard decision to move from the classroom to administration, but Shadowens said that even as a teacher, she found herself gravitating toward opportunities to lead and coach others. When she applied for her first administration role in New York, Shadowens said it just felt like the right move at the right time.
She still sees herself as a teacher first, and she noted that being a principal still requires her to use her “teacher brain” quite a bit.
What would you like to share about your family? “I have a 2-year-old who is always keeping me on my toes.”
What ideas or strategies will you bring to C.A. Frost from your last posting? “We have three classrooms that are piloting a curriculum that I had previous experience teaching called EL Education, which is an ELA curriculum that integrates science and social studies. There’s a lot of natural connections to our environmental theme.
“Whether or not we adopt that curriculum, what I’m excited about is the work we’re trying to do to think about how we can create a coherent program that’s connected to our environmental theme.”
What book, movie, TV show or podcast have you loved lately? “‘Anxious Generation’ by Jonathan Haidt, which felt very, very relevant to a lot of the conversations we’re having right now as a staff, just about the impact of screen time on our kids, and thinking about how we nurture healthy habits around attention for our students.”
Do you have any educational heroes or sources of inspiration? “In elementary school I was a bit precocious. I was not always the most compliant kid. … I had some incredible teachers in that kind of elementary and early middle school space. I went to St. Stephen Catholic School and my teachers, some of them just really got me. They could have labeled me, they could have seen me in a different way, and I feel like they always saw the best in me.”
Anything else? “I feel very, very lucky to be part of the C.A. Frost and Blandford communities. This is an institution that has been around since way before my presence here, and my hope is that it’s going to be around for a very, very long time. And my job is to be a really good steward of it while I’m in this role.”
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