Jane Goette

Jane Goette moved to Boston in 1970 shortly after graduating from University of Wisconsin with an English degree. She needed a job. A friend of a friend told her M.I.T. always needed secretaries and treated them nicely. Jane applied, took a typing test, got interviewed, and was placed in the Education Research Center, Building 20. It was a modest wooden structure that looked like an old army barracks. This was where M.I.T. housed people who didn't fit neatly into traditional departments; people like Noam Chomsky, Jerrold Zacharias, and Jerry Lettvin who once described Bldg. 20 as the "womb of the Institute." Jerry said it was kind of messy, (an understatement,) but "by God it is procreative!" Another understatement.

Quite by chance Jane, who had never wanted to be a teacher, had fallen into Ground Zero of an American education reform movement. The friend of a friend was right; MIT did treat its secretaries nicely. Between typing assignments, Jane read books and articles shared by people in her building, joined their discussions about education, went on field trips to visit local "Free Schools," and when MIT funded a summer learning center for kids in a nearby working class neighborhood, Jane was sent to workshops to prepare her to assist the designated teacher. The real teacher got pneumonia the first week, leaving Jane as the only full-time teacher for the rest of the summer. After that, Jane knew what she wanted to be when she grew up.

From MIT, Jane Goette went on to earn an M.Ed. from the University of Massachusetts' Integrated Day Program. She taught a combination K-2 Integrated Day class at Metairie Park Country Day School in New Orleans moving to Virginia where she has had a long career teaching students of all ages, developing interdisciplinary curriculum, designing and conducting workshops for teachers K-12, modeling the same progressive but timeless practices that inspired her to become a teacher in 1970.

The final chapter of this book, "Reflections on Teaching," was written four decades after her career began. Timeless Teaching is her attempt to model for today's teachers,convey time-tested practices that challenge teachers and students to think, create, collaborate, experiment, and have a good time!

To view my resume go to https://www.dropbox.com/s/cgvn80ioujmu0kr/Jane%20Goette%20AmazonResume%20%20Sept.%2030%202015.docx?dl=0