In an interview conducted by Lia Ganoza ’28, Middle School Teacher Erin Rafferty—who joined TASIS in 2025—shared insights into her teaching role, background, and philosophy. Rafferty teaches eighth-grade English and Intermediate English as an Additional Language (EAL), and also coaches volleyball, recreational yoga, and golf. Her extracurricular involvement stems from personal passion: she played volleyball through high school and into college, played golf from a young age thanks to her father, and has held yoga teacher certification since 2008, with nearly two decades of teaching and 26 years of practice. Working with high school sports, she noted, has been a rewarding way to connect with students beyond her middle school classroom. Rafferty’s educational journey began in U.S. public and private schools, followed by Mount Holyoke College, where she double-majored in English and Spanish and studied abroad in Spain. She began her career through Teach For America on the Texas-Mexico border, an experience she describes as eye-opening regarding the complexities of U.S. society and student needs. She then taught for a decade in New York before earning a master’s in school leadership. After meeting her husband, they moved abroad to Bulgaria for five years and then Brazil for nine, where their children were raised fluent in Portuguese. Now with 26 years of teaching experience, Rafferty speaks English, Spanish, Portuguese, some French, and is learning Italian. She credits her international experience with making her more relaxed and resourceful in facing challenges, and with helping her relate to EAL students as a fellow language learner.
Rafferty’s teaching philosophy centers on the idea that learning is relevant, meaningful, and memorable when students can look through windows and walk through doors to new perspectives, as articulated by Rudine Sims Bishop. She firmly disagrees with the notion that AI might replace teachers or school attendance, arguing that the most meaningful learning occurs through human interaction and community that sparks insight, revelation, and deep reflection. She was drawn to TASIS partly through colleagues Laura and Rob Schlesinger, former Graded School colleagues who praised the school, and by the long tenure of interviewers—many with 12 to 22 years at the school—which signaled a special place. What she enjoys most includes her incredibly multi-talented colleagues and the campus’s natural beauty, which she says is crafted to inspire moments of awe and wonder. Her pathway to teaching was influenced by her mother, who was her English teacher, and by a lifelong love of writing and communication that began in early childhood. She finds eighth grade a “sweet spot” because students display remarkable cognitive development, abstraction, and enthusiasm without the cynicism or transcript pressure of high school. This year, her professional goal is to reinforce student agency through refined discussion practices in her literature classroom, using discussions not for grades but as leverage for deeper understanding. She also aims to improve her Italian and connect with more staff members through language.
