Belmont's Lifeguards of Education

There's something about working at the Underwood Pool that leads to shining careers in education.

Underwood lifeguard and swimming instructor Kate Schellie recently returned from Mumbai, India, where she taught children, four to eight, in a summer enrichment program designed to help students think independently and critically.

Called the Expanding Minds Program (EMP), Schellie said the curriculum she and her co-teachers used helps children "think outside the box" in their quest for solving problems.

"Instead of just giving them the information, this program has children learn by trial and error," Schellie said.

"The children learn how to think in a different way."

She made the trip as a graduate intern for Ponte and Chau Consulting, Inc., an education and child development consulting company located in Belmont, that brings research and theory-driven knowledge into the practical sphere of education and child development services.

The company works with organizations that primarily serve children and youth in educational and out-of-school contexts, bringing current research pertaining to teacher training, educational and developmental technologies, culturally-sensitive practices and child-focused learning strategies so the organizations can strengthen their services for children and their families.

Dr. Iris Chin Ponte, the president of the company, was also a lifeguard at the Underwood Pool for 15 years.

"Because of all the years I spent working with children, I knew my career would involve education in some way," she said.

"I've been around the world and back (through her studies and work) but I made the decision to come back home to Belmont and give back to the community."

Ponte and Schellie worked on the curriculum, along with a teacher in the Mumbai early-education progressive program, for the company's first international EMP client. Together, they decided on two themes for the two and a-half week program: architecture and the human body.

"Architecture is a good topic for open-ended projects," said Schellie. "And the human body is something all children can relate to and think about in new ways."

Schellie described teaching the children about suspension bridges by giving them two chairs, a thick rope, a thin string, a pair of scissors, tape and cardboard. Working in small groups, the children were asked to make predictions first about how to build the bridge.

"Each group had totally different ideas of how to build the bridge, where the supports needed to be and whether or not their bridge would be strong enough to hold something," she said. "We then tested them all with books and discussed the concepts of support, strength and balance."

The time she spent in India was a wonderful experience, Schellie said.

"The children got a lot out of the program," she said. "When we asked them to make predictions they were hesitant at first but gained more confidence in just a short period of time."

In addition to her participation in the EMP in Mumbai, Schellie has been teaching primary school children at the Eliot Pearson Children's School at Tufts.

"I just love when the light goes off," she said, in reference to teaching young students.

"And I'm committed to the idea of helping children come to creative learning solutions by doing rather than merely being told a set of information."

Ponte said she was extremely pleased with the EMP in Mumbai.

"This is an extremely competitive economy right now and our client was looking for a firm that could provide its children with the best progressive education the United States has to offer while meeting India's criteria," she said.

"And Kate – with her teaching experience and young age – had so much to do with this opportunity going beyond our expectations."

Download the movie