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ou know the type of people that just can’t stop talking about their profession? That’s us: Nadieh Cuijpers & Lorie Riegelsberger. Three years ago, we met during the new teacher work days of our new job. Lorie is born in the United States, and I am from the Netherlands. While Lorie just started her adventure on the island, my fourth year living abroad had just begun. We had gotten to know each other and quickly noticed that our views on education were very similar. We both already decided that we would become teachers at a young age. Perhaps this is what made our relationship strengthen so fast. Education is our passion, and we cannot stop talking about it. We share our opinions, experiences, and knowledge gained from books, courses, podcasts, and studies. We discuss challenges that occur, and we automatically investigate them. We share and research solutions to the problem then we reflect and keep trying until we’ve found the solution. We are in the process together, even though only one of us will directly work with a student at a time. The other one will observe the process from a distance which will help us reflect on the process from different points of view.

 

Even though we share the same passion and ideas about education, we grew up learning about different educational systems. Even our process of becoming the teacher we are today was different. Our never ending conversations allow us to create our own system. We combine the best of both Dutch and American education and use this to enrich us as teachers. We want to share our newfound system and knowledge with students and give them the opportunity to improve their overall learning by implementing it themselves. Here is where the idea rose to provide online classes and projects. We use our vision to help and strengthen each student in a way that suits them best.