Faculty Spotlight: Kathy Jany, World Languages Department Head and French teacher

Kathy Jany’s love for all things French began in the 9th grade when she set foot in Paris for the first time after a long intercontinental flight. Kathy could not contain her excitement so, while the rest of her family slept off the jet-lag, she convinced her exhausted father to take her to explore the sites, smells and sounds of the City of Lights. This trip to France turned out to be the catalyst for a career in teaching.

Kathy came of age in the progressive and experimental climate of West Los Angeles in the 1970s. She spent her last two years of high school in a new program that allowed students to develop coursework around one or two areas of interest. Kathy focused on world governments and seashells* (see below) through an interconnected approach that developed core skills in all the traditional disciplines. This integrated methodology appealed to Kathy and ignited a love of reading, an ability to see the big picture and an interest in pursuing anthropology in college. Not surprising for those who have seen Kathy teach, this holistic view of the world was also one she would eventually bring to her own pedagogy.

For college, Kathy followed her passion for French culture and spent her first two years at the University of Aix en Provence and in Avignon in Southern France, where she had her first experience teaching English at a local French lycee. She then moved north to attend the University of Paris where she completed her undergraduate degree. With becoming a French teacher in mind, Kathy relocated to the Bay Area where she obtained a Master’s degree in education from Stanford’s Graduate School of Education.
While doing her student teaching at Gunn High School, Kathy heard about an opening for a French teacher at Crystal, and interviewed with former Head of School Dick Loveland who hired her on the spot.

Thirty-six years later, Kathy attributes her success and longevity to a love of working with students and a desire to constantly rework her curriculum in order to reflect the current generation’s developmental needs. She is one of a few teachers at Crystal who has taught every grade level and enjoys teaching both sixth grade French IA and Upper School Honors level IV.

Because of her background, she infuses lessons with activities that appeal to students including cultural references, collaborative projects, performances and food. Drop into her classroom on any given day and you will see students rehearsing for a skit, discussing important topics in small groups or singing. In fact, in another life, Kathy would have been a choral teacher or professional chef because singing and cooking are the primary ways she expresses herself creatively.

Having known her for almost three decades, I find Kathy to be one of the most imaginative and inspiring teachers at Crystal. As Head of the World Languages Department for over a decade, Kathy leads by example and encourages the members of her department to experiment with new methods, especially the newest members whom she loves to mentor. One member of the department described Kathy as “positive and inspiring. Her commitment to the school is obvious, and she has the gift to make it contagious.” A consummate professional educator, Kathy is at the top of her game in large part because she infuses all that she does with love, fun and a soupçon of joie de vivre.

*Seashells you ask? Yes, seashells. The Gryphon’s Roar had to follow up on this rather unique chose of study. It turns out that Kathy is a SoCal beach girl who grew up spending a lot of time in the water—she is an avid swimmer to this day. Beach combing started her love of collecting seashells and selling seashells in a boutique was her first job. She recalls selling a $500 rare seashell to the actor Vincent Price. Consequently, when she needed to choose a topic of study in her progressive high school, seashells were a perfect focus, particularly as lens through which she could learn about earth sciences.

By the way, the Gryphon’s Roar is impressed that you’ve been curious enough to read this footnote—thank you! As a surprise we have a dozen cookies ready for the first two readers who email the word “seashells” to gryphonsroar@csus.org. Yum!