Emma Drake: Third Grade Teacher

There is a Viking myth that explains how Odin achieved the rank as most supreme god. Odin journeys on three quests, each of which requires him to overcome fearful and sometimes painful obstacles. The most interesting part is that Odin isn’t seeking more superpowers to battle evil forces like so many stories. Odin seeks three things: wisdom and memory, the ability to write in Runes (the Viking alphabet), and the gift of poetry.

These three quests are similar to our goals in third grade at TMCS. We work hard and overcome obstacles in order to gain knowledge. Third grade is a time when students are finding out how they learn best, what they are interested in, and the work habits it takes to express what they have learned. Our Core Knowledge curriculum requires third graders to go beyond themselves and think about the world through science and history topics. Many notions of how we thought the world worked are abandoned for new ones, as we progress from concrete to more abstract understandings. We move through the year studying topics such as astronomy, ancient Roman culture, early colonial times, the human body and the environment.

Emma Leland Drake grew up in eastern Tennessee, and graduated with a B.A. in Elementary Education and American and Appalachian Studies from Grinnell College, in Iowa. Before joining us at TMCS she worked as an art teacher for preschool and elementary grades, and at the Oak Ridge Children’s Museum in Tennessee and The Children’s Museum of Boston. When she’s not enjoying the company of children, she enjoys sketching and painting, quilting, reading and road biking.