Rebekah Shoaf is passionate about helping young people grow by building on their strengths. As a high school English teacher in New York City public schools for ten years, she helped hundreds of students succeed in challenging college preparatory courses, including open-enrollment Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition. For the past four years, she has coached teachers at all career stages throughout New York City as a Teacher Development Coach by designing and leading professional development opportunities, conducting class visits and providing feedback, fostering teacher leadership, and leading teacher teams. She was a founding faculty member and Lead Teacher at the Urban Assembly School of Design and Construction, a founding member of the Fordham Digital Literacies Collaborative, and an Advanced Placement essay scorer for the College Board for four years.
Rebekah was born in Miami and attended a high school for the performing arts before graduating magna cum laude from Harvard University with a bachelor’s degree in English and American Literature and Language. She earned her master’s degree in secondary English education from Lehman College as a New York City Teaching Fellow and has supported pre-service and early-career teachers as a Fellow Advisor and as an adolescent literacy instructor at Fordham University’s Graduate School of Education. Rebekah has led workshops for educators at many local and national events and was featured in both the October 2013 edition of the Public School Press and Never Work Harder Than Your Students: The Journey to Great Teaching, an instructional DVD produced by ASCD in 2009. As a private tutor, Rebekah works with students on academic coaching across the humanities, executive function coaching, and standardized test preparation, including ISEE, ACT, SAT, APs, Regents, and NYS testing at the middle school level.
A lifelong learner, Rebekah is certified to teach Vinyasa yoga and is a graduate of the Chef’s Training Program at the Natural Gourmet Institute. She hopes to someday open a bookstore for children and teenagers in the South Bronx where she lives with her husband.
