When a position in Cathedral Catholic High School’s (CCHS) English department unexpectedly opened during the semester break, Khriseten Bellows swooped in to aid the English students. With her expertise in philosophy and linguistics and a strong pursuit of creativity, Ms. Bellows has much to offer the CCHS community in her first semester as a Don.
Outside of the classroom, Ms. Bellows is passionate about an array of artistic interests, including calligraphy, bookbinding, illustration, painting, and authoring. In college, she trained as a student-athlete in both soccer and lacrosse, and even went on to play lacrosse at the international level.
In addition to these outlets of expression, Ms. Bellows has an unwavering passion for teaching, which she is pursuing for the 28th year, “I started out in Pre-K, which I absolutely loved. I got to work with students with neurological disabilities, then I jumped to fourth grade… I took on middle schoolers … but most of my professional life [17 years] had been in high school.”
Most recently, she taught collegiate-level courses. This span from Pre-K to adults allowed her to panoramically analyze the developmental stages of learners. Grounded in this knowledge, she finds herself in a high school once again, equipped with individualized teaching techniques.
When weighing the techniques that build writing skills, she falls upon two: confidence and experimentation. She intends to prepare her students through “lots of daily writing,” and advises, “Through that practice, you gain a lot of confidence, and learn ways you can experiment to test yourselves.”
Even for students who have other academic interests, this push toward creativity can “help the logical, analytical mind.” As a teacher of high school seniors, Ms. Bellows caters her curriculum to prepare incoming college students.
“I knew I wanted to be with people and I wanted to help others. When I got into teaching, I realized that this was it for me,” Ms. Bellows says. Fueled by this passion, she followed her heart across the globe to teach in Italy, Greece, and Brazil, which allowed her to further compare educational systems across cultures.
With a strong background in Greek and Greek philosophy from her time studying in Athens, she hopes to allow “Greek to permeate not only [her students’] language, but the love of their language” at CCHS. Her first lessons deepened students’ understanding of Greek roots, helping them to understand literary appeals and linguistic tools.
Ms. Bellows is constantly brainstorming ways to bridge her interdisciplinary interests. Her creation of an international short-story class— at a previous high school— did this seamlessly. She reveals, “I adore traveling, but usually if you’re in a year-long school like this you can’t travel that much, so we did a virtual tour around the world to nine different regions.” This allowed her students to learn the languages, history, politics, and culture first, then dive into the writing.
Though Ms. Bellows’ teaching career allowed her to cross-reference educational systems across the world; she appreciates the uniqueness of Cathedral Catholic’s community. “The students struck me immediately as very receptive, open-minded and willing to talk. Administration was also very welcoming when I started teaching here,” Mrs. Bellows says.
With the second semester officially underway, it is clear Ms. Bellows is acclimating well to the new environment. The CCHS community is so lucky to have someone as well-rounded and educationally layered as herself.
