Interview with Karen Campbell Kuebler

Karen Campbell Kuebler graduated from Towson State University in 1991 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in dance and French education. Miss Campbell Kuebler has taught both French and dance in the

Baltimore County Public Schools for over a decade. She is also an adjunct faculty member at Towson University in the Department of Dance. These are her reflections.

OK, Miss Campbell Kuebler, thank you for coming in and sharing your story with us. It will add greatly and add a piece we don't have yet in our teacher education oral history project.

What we're hoping to do is sort of chart the course of teacher education at Towson University across time. Excellent. I'm happy to be part of it. Are you having a person in the hallway all day?

Don't you know? Uh huh. I know, it just, well, that's what I said.

This is going to happen. OK, shall I start over again? OK Miss Campbell Kuebler, thank you so much for coming in and sharing your story about your preparation to become a teacher

and your subsequent career. I think your story will certainly broaden our collective understanding of teacher education at Towson University and help us to better understand the evolution of teacher

education across time. I guess the best place to begin is at the beginning. So would you give us a little sense of your early social context, where you grew up, what kinds of ideas you were having

as you approached high school about what you might want to do afterwards? Certainly. I grew up in Sunbury, PA.

It's about an hour north of Harrisburg, right along the Susquehanna. And from the time I was a little girl, I started dancing. I was dancing at the age of three.

And although I didn't think about it at the time, in dance education you're also learning French. So I was learning things like plie, tendu, degage, rond de jambe. So my French education really started when I started my dance

education. I love to dance. It was part of what I did. It became a part of who I was and how I defined myself.

And at the age of nine, I was dancing Monday night, Tuesday night, Wednesday night, Thursday night and doing performances on the weekends. Oh my heavens.

My family was incredibly supportive. And I would be picked up from school and taken immediately to dance and then my dance teacher would bring me home. So I was there 5 to 9, 5 to 9:30, four nights a week.

So it really became a part of who I was and what I was doing. The French, I had two older brothers who took French, and it's a small town in central Pennsylvania. So I wanted to do what my brothers did.

My house was the house where all the parties were. And my mother is this amazing cook and she would have these lavish French dinners, chicken cordon bleu, mousse au chocolat, all the wonderful things, and I thought, hey, I want to continue

this tradition. So I had the same French teacher and she's an amazing educator and when I started my career, she actually came to see me and still supports me and we are still in touch, as I am with my

dance teacher that I grew up with. So I knew from early on that not only being a part of the world of French and the world of dance was something I wanted to do, but I also wanted to share those gifts that were given to me with

other people. So I actually started teaching dance when I was twelve years old. I would go in as an assistant teacher and help with not only the young children, but with the adult classes as well.

Then when I was fifteen, my dance teacher had a severe neck and back injury and I took over her three studios for a month. So I was given early release from high school and, you know, I was the one in charge.

So I always felt that dance really gave me a lot of leadership potential and that has continued throughout my life. The ability to stand in front of a group, the ability to talk in

front of a group, the ability to perform in front of a group, all those skills really have helped me throughout my life. The French teaching, I never thought of myself as a French teacher, but my sophomore

year in high school at Shikellamy High School, we had the opportunity, it was called teaching foreign language in the elementary school. And so from 10th grade through 12th grade, I was actually a

student intern where I was planning and integrating lessons with a group of students that were doing the same thing. And then I would go out into the elementary schools and teach 4th and 5th grade in our district.

So when I got to Towson University, I wanted to continue that. So that's how I decided on that double major in both French and dance.

My heavens. And what made you choose Towson? I looked at several colleges. I knew I wanted somewhere that focused on education as much as

performance. And as it turns out, Towson University is the only university in Maryland that offers a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in performance and education.

In Pennsylvania, there were two schools, but they just didn't have the opportunities that I felt at Towson University. So we just decided to visit here because I said, mom, I think this is it.

This is the fit. And I walked, I'm almost going to cry. I walked where I walked today, that center of campus and I said, mom, this is where I'm going to be.

And I never applied to another university. I never looked back from there. I just said, this is it. I just knew.

And the opportunities that Towson afforded me, even though it was a big school, at the time, it was 17,000, back in '86. And even though it was this big school, I was in two very small majors.

I was a dance major. There were about 60 dance majors at the time. And I was a French major and there were about 30 French majors at the time.

So even though I'm in this big university with all these opportunities, I was still very nurtured, and every professor I had knew my name. Every professor I had, I could feel that I could go to them and

talk to them and counsel with them and find out what was the best path. When I registered, I was a dance major and I was not a French major.

One of my French professors came up to me and said, you know, you've had French since you were in 4th grade, why don't you consider a double major? And I said, OK, because I went into 300 level French as a

freshman. So I got those prerequisite credits, which obviously saved some money along the way. So that is advice that I give to my middle school and high school

students today. I say to them, do you realize that this is an opportunity that you know you can do now because very often 6th, 7th, 8th grade, you're not thinking about college already, but this is an

opportunity where you really can think about college and all the things it can afford you. Can you tell us a little bit about the coursework that you did here, both in both majors and also in your preparation to

become a teacher? Yes, definitely. As I said, my sophomore, junior and senior year, I taught French in the elementary school.

So when I got here, Lida Lee Tall was still here. And I said, why aren't we going to Lida Lee Tall and teaching French? And they said, well, nobody's ever done that before.

I said, well, I'm going to do it. So myself, I went to Lida Lee Tall, I talked to the fifth grade teachers and I set up a program where I would go in and I taught French to the fifth grade classes at Lida Lee Tall

for several years. I also was a student work study in the student daycare center. I was so excited to find out that Harriet Douthirt, when it was rebuilt on the other side of campus, was still the director

because she was the director when I was there and I did dance productions with the students there. So really that wasn't a part of my course work, but that was a part of what I felt that I needed to do to continue my

teaching skills. I also sought out other teaching opportunities in the area. I worked for the rec and parks. I worked for a variety of elementary schools where I would

go in and do before and after school programming in both French and dance, and it was a win-win for both. As far as my coursework, I mean, I followed the coursework that was required at the university.

I think something that a lot of people do not know is that the dance major at the time, and I know it still has, you know, a huge credit requirement. It had the most required credits of any major at the university.

Is that so? Yes, because our technique classes at the time were two credits, but you put in three credit time. And that was because as dancers, we need to have a lot of

technique. We need to have that technique available to us. And as a BFA, not a BA, you have to have that technical requirement.

So we had something like 120 required credits and a lot of majors had 60, you know. So that was huge. People thought, oh, you're just dancing. And throughout my career, you're not just a teacher.

You are certainly an advocate for what you are very passionate about. And to this day, even as someone who is going through a 25-year career with many successes, I'm still confronted with people

saying, oh, well, I thought you were just the dancer. And how do you respond to that? Well, I show them that I am a dancer and I am so much more because as a dancer you are someone who knows about culture,

you are someone who knows about language, you are someone who knows about health and nutrition. You are someone who knows how to be a counsellor. You are so many things to so many people.

And I find this in my dance history courses with the students here. I have some majors, I have some non majors. And their image of dance is very narrow.

It's this idea of, oh, somebody's up on stage, they've got their little bunhead and, you know, they're just dancing around, and they realize that it is so much more, that dance is really a story, that dance is a history and dance brings people

together for celebrations. So it really affords so many opportunities that I continue to realize in my career. And other people say, oh, I never realized it could be done

that way. From my early childhood experiences. I taught kindergarten for ten years in French. And the way I teach language is through movement.

And I actually had an assistant principal who called me into her office and she said, you know, Karen, I'm going to be really honest with you. I thought all that dancing around you did was just, you

know, superfluous. You know, you just did it. And, you know, you let the kids get a little wild and there was no reason for it, she said.

And then I took this course on the importance of the brain and gross motor movement and fine motor movement and that whole development. And I went, oh, I understand what Karen's doing.

This makes so much sense. So I feel like I've spent my entire career proving to other educators and other administrators the value of fine arts education, specifically dance, and also the benefits of

being bilingual and how much that helps the brain. And so one of my areas of research, through a colleague named Anne Green Gilbert out in Seattle, Washington, she developed something called the Brain Dance, and it has these eight

developmental movement patterns. And I really use that as a framework when I'm planning my lessons, whether I'm teaching a history lesson, a math lesson, no matter what I'm planning, because dance and language are

really integrated into everything I do. So it's really a wonderful opportunity. Can you tell us a little bit about your student teaching experience?

Did you have to student teach both in French and in dance? Yes, and that's a great story as well, and it really speaks to the support that I had at Towson University. As a freshman,

I of course shared with everyone that I was a double major and a double concentration, so I needed to have a plan and I put that plan into action. In my sophomore year,

I went to the Department of Education and they said, well you're going to have to do two extra semesters because there's no way you can teach, you can student teach, in one semester.

And I said why not? And they said, well, it's never been done before, and I said, so? So I went to the Department of Dance chair, her name is Doctor Helene Breazeale.

She started the dance program. She was here for many years and she was incredibly supportive and she said, Karen, we're going to make this happen. So instead of teaching the 15- week semester for student

teaching, I did 18 weeks. So I did six weeks in an elementary school doing dance with a music teacher. And I smile because this is a woman that went to my church.

I attend Ascension Lutheran Church and we just work together so beautifully, working with, because there weren't any programs in dance in elementary school, which is something that I accomplished in Baltimore County later in my career.

But working with a music educator, even as a student intern, you're sharing what you do, so it becomes this amazing partnership. And so I worked with her for six weeks.

Then I went to a middle school and did French for six weeks. I went to Howard County and I was in Patuxent Valley Middle School, which at the time was one year old. So I used to call it a mall with lockers because it's just so

beautiful and brand new. And then for my high school, I went to Glen Burnie High School and I did three periods of French and two periods of dance. So I was able to do it six weeks, six weeks, six weeks and

get it all done in essentially one semester. Amazing. So, and it was a wonderful, rich experience, and I was able to see every level.

And throughout my career, I've taught babies through adults. And I really feel that focusing on that throughout my career really helped me be not an educator that's just honed in on one.

And some people really love doing that. But I love the variety of all the ages. And I must say, I particularly love beginners because I think you see the growth and the change so much quicker than

someone who's, you know, been studying for 15 years and think they know everything. So even at the high school level, I love to have those beginners.

So is certification for French for a language and certification for dance, are those K12 programs or are you grade level specific? That's an excellent question as well.

Dance is K through 12. Languages, world languages, two years ago became K through 12. I happen to know the person who's at the State Department who made that happen.

Her name is Susan Spinato, and she has been an advocate for languages her entire career. She was the coordinator for Baltimore County for World Languages in ESOL for many years before going to the State

Department. And I was one of the people that really wanted to make that happen. Baltimore County has numerous magnet programs.

In 1993, I started the French immersion magnet program at Wellwood International School. At the time, I was certified dance K through 12 and French 6 through 12 because it didn't exist in the state of Maryland.

I see the way the educational system and certification system worked at that time, if you taught two years successfully in something that you weren't certified in, you were automatically certified.

So because I did that, I received certification in dance and French then N through 12, nursery through 12. So now my certification is dance and French nursery through 12. So I really believe that I am one of the few people in the

state of Maryland that has that certification. And something that I have advocated for for a number of years is having that coursework available. When I was here, his name was Doug.

I can't remember his last name. He was our certification person for World Languages and he was an amazing teacher. He taught in Pennsylvania and would commute here.

It was one of those one night a week courses for your certification. Wonderful class. But I really have seen through my student interns, supervising

student interns, that they really need to understand the differences between educating an elementary child and educating a middle schooler or high schooler. Because you can't say open the book to page 23 and here we go

and read it because that's not the way an elementary child functions. They need the action, they need the interaction. Really what the Common Core is stressing, that teamwork, that

analyzing, using that to learn the language, not just getting it out of a book or repeating or doing drills and repetitive exercises that really aren't enabling you to communicate in the language.

So having that dance background I think really helped me with the teaching of the French because it was always very active. So.

So you have managed to do this. Two majors, come out, you're ready to go. You have already been teaching dance, as you said, since you were young, very young, 12 or something.

Now what comes next? What do you elect to do? Well, once again, Towson University provided me with an incredible opportunity. From the time I was a sophomore here,

I helped in the summer with the summer children's camp, the dance program there. So I did that sophomore, junior, senior year, and then I was I guess you would say noticed by the director of the children's

program at the time. It is now called the Community Dance program. But right out of college I became the assistant director of that children's program.

I did that for six years, and then I really wanted to, I don't necessarily want to say break away, but I wanted to do it myself and not be under the auspices of the university. So I went and I had my own studio for ten years, teaching

children 3 through 12, and I taught all of my classes in French. So the students were not only receiving a dance education, they were also receiving French.

And we performed locally. I used my background in arts integration. We went into the museums, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Walters Art Museum.

We did performances there. They had a Matisse exhibit at the BMA. We did pieces that were dancing about Matisse. There was an Impressionism exhibit at the Walters.

We did a whole program based on the different Impressionist works there. We did something at the aquarium where we did all these different aquatic pieces.

We did something for the National Museum Organization when they were meeting in Baltimore for their National Convention. My students performed various pieces that were taken from the

different museums. I love to take my students to the museum. I love to do that arts integration.

My background in Baltimore County teaching kindergarten afforded me the opportunity to do this program that they had. It's called Teaching Art, Language Literacy in the Arts. So you basically take six artworks from the Baltimore Museum of

Art, teach them to your kindergarteners using a variety of methods, and then you take them to the Baltimore Museum of Art and they see all of these. Well, of course, I not only incorporated the language in the

literacy, I incorporated the dance as well. Well, then I shared that with the preschool at my church. There were other preschools that heard, oh, did you hear what Karen's doing?

I would go in there and teach this whole program. So I'm not only promoting education and literacy, I'm promoting the Baltimore Museum of Art and teaching children because who's going to be the next generation of people that

go to these artists, you know, these these art museums, if they don't know from an early age what this is all about. And just walking around and reading all those little cards, that's not what children do.

Children, once again, need to interact. So something as simple as the song, you know, head, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes. You know, I use that at the museum for all the sculptures.

My son, who is now nine, from the time he was five months old, I was walking through the museum's with him playing games like "tete ou pas de tete," you know, head or no head, with the sculptures and things.

Because at the Walters Art Museum, there are a lot that don't have a head. You know, through time, they just, you know, disappear or, you know, arm or no arm.

And so then how do I know that he has this information? We're walking through them all the one day and he goes, "Mama, pas de tete." I'm like, well, he's got it.

So, you know, my whole life has just become this educational journey, integrating the arts, integrating the language and learning about what all that does. Wow.

But you were connected with Baltimore County Public Schools as well? I've been... Did you have a full time position with them at some

point? Yeah. I've worked with the county since 1991. I started, I was part time, .8.

You know, at 1.0 was full time, so I was .8. My first year I was at Middle River Middle School doing French, and then I was also here at Towson University as the assistant director of the children's program.

So I did that in sync for twelve years. I see. Then I left Towson University and started my own studio. I did that for ten years.

Are you still connected, then, with Baltimore County? Yes. So you're doing both? So I did both all the years. Simultaneously. Yes. When I had my son, I took off a year, totally.

And then I've been back part time for eight years. He is nine. So I've just been doing part time. And then I just went back full time this year.

I see. But I've always done either French or dance or some combination thereof, and four years ago, and this has a Towson University connection as well.

As I said, I go to church here and I've had this connection with Towson University. We had a new chair come into our Towson University dance department.

And as an alum, I've, you know, always been interested in what's going on in the department and keeping up with it. So I met Doctor Susan Kirchner, and we just connected. And at an alumni event, I started talking to her about my

background and my master's thesis. I did my master's here as well in the Ballet Russe and their history and how I tied the French and the dance, I did the liberal studies major here so I could, you know, do

what I wanted, what fit me. That was wonderful. And I talked to her about my Ballet Russe, and she said, could you come back and teach dance history for me?

And I said absolutely. So that was in 2009. So what I've been doing since 2009 is part time Baltimore County and dance in French and then adjunct here in dance

history. And then they really wanted me to be a part of the education department as well. So I've served both as an intern supervisor and then a

supervising teacher. So I've been on both sides of it because as I'm driving to Towson University, I find out that Baltimore County is building a new elementary school, West Towson Elementary.

And I said, what a perfect location to have our majors have an opportunity to come over and see an elementary dance program in action. I knew the person who was going to be the principal because we

had worked together in various dance events through the past. She's always been very supportive of the arts. So I went to her and I said, could I do a dance program here? I do not want full time.

I would like .2, which is essentially one day a week, which ended up being 3 mornings a week for two hours. And so I've done that the past several years and I'm proud to say that three of our majors, our dance majors, have come and I

have been their supervising teacher, so they could see an elementary dance program in action and then be able to experience that because they can go into a middle school, they can go into a high school and see a dance

program. But until that opportunity, there were no elementary dance programs in Baltimore County. And I still am the only elementary dance program in

Baltimore County. Amazing. And it's not ballet, modern, jazz, tap. It is dance integration.

So last week I taught the pumpkin life cycle dance. Two weeks ago I was at a family event and we did the water cycle. We dance the water cycle where we talk about, you know, the

collection, the evaporation, the condensation, the precipitation. These are four and five year old students that are learning and people say to me, I never thought about doing it that way. Wow, that really works.

Other colleagues say to me, Karen, why is it when you teach them something, they remember it? Well, because they're not just using their ears and their eyes. They're using their bodies.

They're using their mouth, They're using their ears. They're using their eyes. They're doing this multimodal education that makes it stick. It is cohesive.

You know, it's not something that just, oh, I read it in a book and, you know, I'm never going to remember it again. And they're also having fun while they're doing it. That always helps.

Yes, they're smiling. They're enjoying it. In some cases, the families are right there. I do these activities at family nights.

I had an administrator come up to me two weeks ago after this water cycle family night. And she said I saw parents having fun with their children and interacting with their children in a way that I've

never seen before. So back to what I said at the beginning, that idea of celebration, that dance is a celebration. At my son's school, they talk about assessment being a

celebration of learning. And I love that because that's what assessment should be. It shouldn't be this stressful moment. And I really feel that that's one of the messages that I send

as a dance educator, that it's the celebration of learning and that you feel so good about what you're doing and sharing. It sounds like you've done these multimodal kinds of interactions with learners throughout your career, I should say throughout

your life, since you started teaching at such an early age. You were asked to do history of dance. Now, see, that can be kind of a dry thing if you're not careful.

So I'm really interested in learning how you made that more than just kind of a dry, this happened in 1812, and this is what... Well, when Doctor Susan Kirchner asked me

to do that, I said I cannot teach dance history and not dance. And she said, Karen, you make it your own. She is this amazing administrator that really finds

what makes people who they are and how they are creative and lets them be creative. And I think that is a gifted administrator. I love that.

So she said do it. So I took dance history and I really feel that with anything you really need to feel what it feels like in order to truly understand it because that has been my life.

That has been my experience. So the Towson Seminar course, that's one of the history courses that I do. So it's called African American Contributions to the Arts in the

20th Century. So I begin in the late 1800s and we talk about a dance called The Ring Shout. And that idea of the circle, where does that come from?

So we all literally stand in a circle in class. I do this whole mix of, we're dancing, we're listening, we're dancing, we're interacting, we're doing activities that promote all those things that I've been talking about.

So we learn the actual dance, the ring shout, that the slaves did in the South in the late 1800s to celebrate the end of the day. The fact that they're still alive, the fact that they, you

know, live to tell another day, live to work another day. The instruments that they would use. I bring in tambourines. We use body percussion.

We use all of these things. And they say, oh, I never realized that. Well, then we continue and they see this evidence of these early dances throughout history.

We learn the cakewalk. Well, where does that come from? Where are those movements come from? I mean, you know, the whole knee thing that they do, all of these

different movements and where do they come from and who inspired them? And then we do the Charleston. Well, I always say, you know, have you ever gotten up and, you

know, mom or dad left early and you might have put something on underneath and then put a big sweatshirt on top and mom and dad didn't know what you had on? Well, that's the 1920s and the whole flapper idea because this

was done in the Speakeasy. Do you know what a Speakeasy was? So it's this melding of the movement and the history and the story and the excitement and the, oh, you weren't supposed to

do this. This was prohibition and you're in a Speakeasy and connecting all these events. And then the 1930's, the Lindy Hop.

Well, why was it called the Lindy Hop? Well, Charles Lindbergh and his flight across the Atlantic and they go, oh, I never knew that. So once again, it's taking this idea of this is dance and going

like this and saying this is dance and bringing in the language piece. The other part of dance history is realizing where it came from. So when you do these cultural dances, they have all these

patterns that came from the rich history of the European cultural dances in the courts. And that's Louis the 14th and that's French. So of course I teach them French.

And then the other dance history course I do, and then I go all through. I should continue with the 20th century. I stopped at the Lindy Hop.

We do swing, we do Elvis Presley, we do the 60s with Chubby Checker and the twist and talk about what is a one hit wonder. And Chubby Checker is still alive and he still says, Oh my

gosh, I had that one hit wonder. And then everything I did after that just didn't, you know, measure up to the first one. I mean, his next hit was twist again, you know, so and then the

disco era and what did that do, you know? And then we go to, of course, they all love Michael Jackson and the 80s and break dancing. And how does that connect to hip hop and what you're doing today?

And I do some of those steps from the 30s, 40s and 50s. And that's one of their assignments. They have to connect steps they do today to steps from the 30s, 40s and 50s.

And they all say, I never realized that. There is a YouTube video called The Evolution of the Moonwalk and it shows, and whenever I say, I'm not trying to take anything away from Michael Jackson because he was this amazing entertainer,

but he did not invent the moonwalk. And they go, no, no, no. But the fact that there's this whole evolution of dance that they're not aware of.

And it just makes them realize that it's not this isolated history of, you know, people standing at the barre doing steps, but it's this rich history of movement and dance and culture and people and how they've all come together throughout history

to celebrate. So it's just fascinating and I love it, as you can tell. So how I started... Yeah, just a little. How I started out

my other dance history course, it's an overview. So all dance history. Fine. So I start with cultural dance and I say they walk in and

written on the board is "what is dance?" And they have to do a one word description, just write it up there for that first day. And then I keep that throughout the semester and we keep

referring back to it and say have we done this, have we done this, have we done this? And then I teach them La Danse Folklorique de Quebec, a Quebecois folk dance, and I teach it to them totally in French.

And they learn it. They're speaking French. They're doing all the patterns. And then at the end I say, OK, what have you learned about me?

And they say you speak French. And I say, yes. And I say, but do any of you speak French? And I've never had a student who says, you know, yeah, I'm fluent

in French. And they all learn the dance. And so then I say dance is the universal language, and that's very powerful.

So I say you can learn all this without being able to speak what someone else is speaking. And then we go through and we learn other cultural dances, ten through the series of three weeks.

And then we take this brain dance by Anne Green Gilbert and use that as an assessment tool to talk about what is happening in the cultural dances. So obviously there's breath, there's tactile, you use your

upper body, you use your lower body, you're using cross lateral, you know, crossing that corpus collosum. So I've now taught them cultural dance, I've taught them actual steps, I've taught them anatomy of the brain.

So I've got this science piece in there. And this is all in three weeks. So they have this rich history, culture, movement, all in one course.

And then we go from there to ballet and its cultural history. Then we go to jazz dance and its cultural history. We do ballet through the centuries. We do jazz dance through the decades.

And then we do modern dance through the choreographers. And we talk about how the choreographers have influenced each generation. And I show them Pilobolus, and they are very famous modern

dance company that started in the 70s. And I show them the YouTube clip when they were on the Conan O'Brien show. So this whole idea of how in recent history, the past 20

years, how dance has infiltrated the commercial industry. And if you think about just in the last 10 years, So You Think You Can Dance, the Dancing With the Stars, America's Best Dance Crew, all these commercial pieces that have made dance

really come to the forefront again. And it hasn't really been there since I would say the 40s and the 50s. Interesting.

So this whole, once again, cultural, social piece coming to light. Amazing. And you do that course in three weeks?

Well, no, it's a 15 week course, but the culture is 3 weeks. I see. Then the ballet is 3 weeks, the jazz dance is 3 weeks, the modern dance is 3 weeks.

And then of course we have the final where I do a tap dance history and talk to them about tap dance and how that has evolved in many cases parallel to jazz dance. And then they broke off in about the last 30 years.

So and then we talked about Savion Glover and his motion capture suit that he wore in Happy Feet and some of the students that are interested in film and media, that is really up and coming, and how do you do that?

I mean, I know the camera people know how to do that and make that happen and the Hollywood people, but just being in a motion capture suit and how to do that. And, you know, there's a course in dance, in the dance major.

It's Composition 5, the highest level of composition, where you work with the film majors and they do this amazing collaboration. So bringing all that together and making that happen, it's

really exciting. It sounds like it. My heavens, what haven't we talked about that you want to share with us about your career?

Well, something that I haven't talked about that I think has made my career as successful as it is is, well, I'm going to mention several things. First of all, my first year teaching, the department chair

of the English Language Arts department came up to me and she said you're never going to feel like you have enough time in your teaching career, but always take time to talk to other teachers about what they do and what they have to offer because

teaching can be very isolatory because you're in that classroom with the students. So I've always sought out opportunities for collaboration from early on because my first two years I was in a trailer

teaching French as a brand new teacher. So I made every opportunity to come in that building and find out what other people were doing and also invite them into my world.

Could I come in and teach the days of the week in your class? Could I come in and teach, you know, something about Haiti in your class? Could I?

And who's going to say no, right? Is it more work? Yes. But is there a huge payoff?

Yes. So that collaboration from early on I think is incredibly important. Something else that someone said to me earlier in my career, are

you a part of your professional organization? And I said, no, tell me more about that. Because then you go to these conferences and you meet other people and you get all these resources, and it is amazing.

So now it has come full circle. I'm not going anymore to get resources for myself. Now I'm going to share with other people. I've been presenting since 1993 at conferences, local, national,

international. How has that paid off for me? Last year I was invited because the French Embassy in DC called the AATF, the American Association of

Teachers of French, called the executive director and said, do you have a teacher that is not only a French teacher but is also into integration? Because in France we are having this workshop where we want

educators from around the world to come together and develop transdisciplinary lessons. She said, I've got Karen Kuebler. Whoa.

So I was given an all expense paid trip to France for a week to work with... I was one of two French educators in the entire United States chosen to do this.

Amazing. And I still have not stopped jumping up and down, you know, pinching myself that this happened. But I was one of 30 educators in the entire world that was

brought together in France to do this, to share not only my French but my dance. And that someone said this is valuable. So I worked with a woman from Hungary who was a French teacher

in the high school, and we developed a lesson together that talked about the political autonomy of King Louis the 14th and how his love of the arts influenced the development of ballet throughout history.

And this is what we developed. So she had that political side. And we had all these writings, you know, and actual information from history, historical, you know, first documents.

And then we had this rich dance history as well, melded it together. So this is what this conference was about. So if I wouldn't have been an active member of my

organization, that would have never happened. Next week I'm traveling to Miami for the National Dance Educators Organization for their annual conference. Once again, I get all these ideas, information,

opportunities to network with people that I might only meet online regularly, but I get to see them face to face. And there's such a difference. Of course. So all of my student interns, I pay for their first year in that

professional organization. And I feel that that is something that is very important and that you should do as an intern, you know, supervisor, because it has just afforded me so many opportunities that are, you

know, too numerous to name. So did you a third? There's the AATF, American Association of Teachers of French, NDEO, the National Dance Educators Organization, and then

locally there's the MFLA, Maryland Foreign Language Association, and I have been very active in those organizations my entire career. Those three and when I was teaching kindergarten full time, which I

did for ten years, I was also very active in NAEYC, the National Association for the Education of Young Children and I did a variety of presentations for them. I have a whole presentation called Doctor Seuss Can Dance

that I love to share with early childhood educators. And to this day, I still present annually at the, I'm not going to remember the name, but it's the United Methodist Church. It's their nursery school, their Baltimore-Washington Nursery

School Conference. It's every August. And I go every year and present to them about how to incorporate, in some way, music and movement in the classroom

because it's so important. Right. You've shared with us your belief that collaboration and cooperation among teachers is tremendously important and that connection with your sort of knowledgeable organizations.

What would you say to students, and you are working with some of those students. What wisdom, additional wisdom, would you share with students considering a career in teaching? In addition to the

collaboration, you're often told you need to learn how to say no, but I think that when you're in areas such as world languages and dance that you need to always be on the forefront and you need to

say yes. If I would have continued to say no to all those collaborators, I wouldn't be where I am today. So I really seek out opportunities because I feel

that I can improve other people's educational experiences. I had an opportunity here at the university several years ago where I worked with the math department on the Bridges

conference. I saw it. We got it as an e-mail. So I called the president who happened to, you know, he's a

math professor here. And I said, could I please present? And he said, sure, you know, so I filled out, you know, my presentation.

I said, just tell me a little bit more about it. Well, what has that afforded me? I not only got to resent to, you know, this worldwide audience and meet some new people, but I have people from the math

department now calling me and saying, contacting me e-mail, could you come over? I'm going to be out for a conference. Could you come in and teach my class?

And then I have these other people in the math department going, what are you doing here from the dance department? And I say, well, you know, we do parabolas and we do geometry and we do all these things too.

And they go, oh, I never thought about it that way. So really focus on collaboration and seek out opportunities. And yeah, it can be a little scary, but you're also learning more too.

And then that affords you the opportunity to work together with other people and be willing to take risks and put yourself out there. Because if you just stay in your comfort zone, you know, it's not

going to happen. Right. Somebody came to me last year first grade and said we're doing something on the rainforest. What have you got?

And I said, well, I've done the layers of the rainforest before, but I want to look for something else. So of course, we go to Google University, right? That's where everybody goes these days.

And I googled it and I found Guadalupe. There's a rainforest in Guadalupe. Guadalupe happens to be a French speaking country, right? Guadalupe is shaped like a butterfly.

This was first grade. What do they do in their science curriculum? They do the life cycle of the butterfly. So I'm saying, OK, I know this, I can do this.

So I've got the life cycle of the butterfly. I've got a geography lesson, I've got a language lesson. I've got all these things, and I've got the rainforest. There we go.

And did that take me, you know, six hours? No, because what is afforded to us today, the availability of resources, is so different than years ago. Years ago, that would take me 6-7 hours to find all that stuff

and figure out where it is. Now it takes less than an hour and I've got everything I need. So knowing your resources, finding them and connecting and collaborating and just being willing to put yourself out

there. And yeah, sometimes it's scary. You know, the first time I presented in front of a whole room of science people, yeah, I made sure I did some extra preparation.

But wow, you know, so you just put yourself out there and, you know, you're you're surprised and you're excited by what you get. Yes, I can see that.

Anything else that you can think of that you wanted to add? I just feel that the many opportunities that continue to come to me because of Towson University makes me know that it was the right choice, you know, and to think that was 1986, and

now it's 2013, and I'm still reaping the benefits of everything this university has given me. And some... Oh, the other opportunity I had, 1989, I went to Russia as

part of that international dance exchange. And I remember a math teacher I had in high school that when I said I was going to be a dance major, he said, what are you ever going to do with that?

And so I had to be really strong. I'm one girl of a family of four, so I have three brothers. So my brothers always said, yeah, you know, I had that strength from early on to say, hey, I can do this, too.

You know, don't put me down. And I went back to that professor when I found out I was going to, well, that teacher when I was going to Russia, and I said, guess what I'm doing?

And he went, oh, and it's interesting because my mom still sees him from time to time. Guess what Karen's doing now? Guess what Karen's doing now?

And it's not that you have to be constantly, but to instill doubt in a student that's just starting. That's not something positive. And so I really tried because I remember that.

So I really try with my students to just show them all the positive things that are out there and to really seek out that positive. That's not to say that there aren't going to be some negatives along

the way, because there certainly are, but choose, you know, two roads diverged in a yellow wood, you know, choose the positive one, not the negative one, and you may not always know what that is, but continue to search.

Well, I have learned an enormous amount myself. Well, thank you. Thank you so much for doing this for us. Thank you, Doctor Blair.