Mr. John North is a Pennsylvania born American, who lists his family, education, and his partner as the most important facets of his life. A veteran educator, after completing his Bachelor of Science in Secondary Education at Pennsylvania State University (WE ARE PENN STATE!) Mr. North spent the first seven years of his career teaching social sciences in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, including subjects such as geography, law studies, and various AP courses.
He then followed a lifelong dream to see the world and moved to Vietnam. Settling in Hanoi, Mr. North first worked as an itinerant English teacher across the Hanoi metropolitan area. He was then hired on by SPASH to teach 5th grade. He immediately fell in love with the amazing community he found there. The next year he was shifted up to the middle and high school where he taught 8th and 9th grade social studies. Recognizing an opportunity for expanding our school’s programming, Mr. North was requested to start a drama program. Splitting his time between drama and social studies, Mr. North oversaw the expansion of the program from a single section of high school drama to two sections, one each for middle and high school. It is one of his dreams and goals to see this program grow and thrive with the addition of new courses.
Recognizing a desire for a new challenge and a way to grow as a professional, Mr. North completed his Master’s Degree through Ball State University, earning his MS in education with a focus on Educational Administration and Supervision. While completing his masters, Mr. North partnered with two of his now former colleagues, Leslie Lovejoy and David Coley to establish St. Paul English Academy for Kids, or SPEAK, a program which provides our high school students with a fantastic service learning opportunity by placing them in the role of teacher, planning and delivering English language lessons to the children of our local Vietnamese staff.
After five years in the classroom at SPASH, he was promoted to the role of deputy principal for the middle and high schools. In 2021, he was promoted once again, this time to the position of middle school principal, to oversee the gradual division of the middle and high school into more independent entities. In this role, Mr. North has sought to ensure SPASH’s beloved middle school students received the specific attention and consideration necessitated by their unique developmental stage. He has proudly worked alongside the expert professionals of the middle school team as they navigated the uncertain waters of the COVID pandemic. As the SPASH community emerges with the rest of the world from the trying times of the past few years, Mr. North has tremendous optimism and excitement for the future of SPASH, especially in the middle school. He is confident that together the middle school will strive every day to live the mission of preparing students to be engaged, educated, and empowered global citizens. GO EAGLES!
Our teachers care deeply about our students. It is very clear to me that they know our students, aside from their parents, better than anyone else…
…Our students have an entire department that is dedicated to developing their English language proficiency. We have this year implemented the Wayfinder curriculum which is specifically designed to help our students with social emotional learning, stress management, conflict resolution, time management, etc.
In our middle school, we prepare our students for success in the high school by gradually elevating the rigor from year to year. We seek to be very intentional with how we are encouraging them to strive for more from year to year. The transition from fifth grade to sixth grade is daunting in any setting. Here at St. Paul, we began implementing what we call shadow days in which our fifth graders join their mentors for a day going through their schedule, meeting teachers, and getting a feel for what it’s really like to be a middle schooler. Through careful attention and a plan that provides supports not just from the adults, but from peers, our fifth graders are more prepared or more comfortable as they take that next step in their educational journey.
Our data shows us that our students are often highly capable in mathematics and so we want to provide an opportunity for them to approach more rigorous pathways. Students will be able to take placement tests to effectively bypass classes which they’ve already demonstrated mastery for and move on to the next level of mathematics.
Two of our eighth graders who in speaking with their science teacher, it became evident that they were already very well-versed with the content that they were studying in class. And so that teacher approached me and asked, would it be okay if these students were to kind of have an additional or expanded learning experience of their own design? Absolutely. What that reflects to me is that our students when they want more challenge, they simply have to ask.
We have community meetings in our JMPR and at least half of those meetings are run by middle schoolers. So they get up in front of the entire middle school body, faculty, students, everybody. They share announcements, they celebrate successes, they do the work of leadership. By the end of the year, they are so comfortable with speaking in front of others, with leading others. It’s truly impressive.
This is a place where we foster independence, where we foster creativity, where we foster the various qualities that we believe are going to ensure our students are successful in the 21st century. Every child is cared for at St. Paul and our teachers make that part of their mission every day.
