Margaret Funkhouser

This virtual interview took place on November 17, 2020 via Zoom. Margaret Funkhouser is the Director of  Writing, Film & Media Arts at Walnut Hill School for the Arts, an independent arts boarding school in Natick, MA. There is a large portion of students who are boarding and/or international students at Walnut Hill School, and Margaret speaks to this unique circumstance throughout the interview. This is Margaret's second interview with the Education Narratives Project, and she spoke about how she and her husband, who teaches at the same school, managed sharing space while remote-teaching at home, and how their own children influenced their decisions to return to in-person teaching. Margaret reflected on the unique position of her international students and the school's transition back to some in-person classes for seniors. Because Margaret is a department head at the school, she shared about how her position in a leadership role has affected her reaction to COVID-19 and teaching, and how she has to model behavior and respond to the concerns of teachers within her department, even as they are all navigating the totally new crisis of COVID and teaching together.