From very early on, Anna Kontos knew to listen to her heart and intuition to lead her. When her heart told her education was her path, she leaned in. But she also knew that intuition—or the art of teaching— can take you only so far and that being the best resource to kids would require more science. Find out how mixing science, art, and a very special sauce can create the alchemy needed to excel.
From very early on, Anna Kontos knew to listen to her heart and intuition to lead her. When her heart told her education was her path, she leaned in. She supplemented part-time leave term consulting gig with substitute teaching, which she enjoyed way more. She was part of the cohort of students who took the education program and stayed a semester after graduation to student teach and gather more in-class tools. She particularly loved how her creative side was grounded by her understanding of cognitive science. But she also knew that intuition—or the art of teaching— can take you only so far and that being the best resource to kids would require more science. She pursued that science and then found many ways to apply it, teach it, and center it at the core of her own practice.In this episode, find out how from Anna how mixing science, art, and a very special sauce can create the alchemy needed to excel.
About This Episode’s Guest
Anna Kontos is a Learning Specialist, Private Tutor, and an educator of educators. She recently co-founded Canvas & Cortex, an integrated consultancy in the Boston area that provides family and school consulting, executive-functioning and ADHD coaching, and workshops that blend creativity with research-backed strategies for student success. She lives with her husband and two sons in the Boston area, close to her large extended Greek family.
Anna Kontos: I definitely loved education. It's what I wanna do. And I had a lot of relatives at the time saying, why are you going to an Ivy League school if you're quote unquote just gonna teach? But it gets back to my values. I think I was like, because that's what I wanna do and that's the right thing to do for me, so I'm going to teach.
Leslie Jennings Rowley: From very early on, Anna Contos knew to listen to her heart and intuition to lead her. When her heart told her education was her path, she leaned in. But she also knew that intuition or the art of teaching can take you only so far, and that being the best resource to kids would require more science. Find out how mixing science, art, and a very special sauce can create the alchemy needed to excel on today's Roads Taken with me, Leslie Jennings Rowley.
Today I'm here with my friend Anna Kontos and we are going to talk about education and how it gets us places and brings us full circle and is really at the heart of it all. Anna, it’s so great to have you with us.
AK: Thank you for having me, Leslie.
LJR: Alright, so when I have a new guest on, I ask two questions and they are these, when we were in college, who were you? And when we were getting ready to leave, who did you think you would become?
AK: Okay. Those are the only two questions I knew you'd ask, and I feel like I'll do better on every other question. But I actually went and I asked my parents and some people who knew me, I was like, who was I? What? Because I just, I don't know. It was a long time ago. And, it was my sister who reminded me, actually, of this little tidbit about myself that I, when we had to write our college essays, I wrote a poem. And I now work with kids all in the process. That's part of what I do. And I would never say, Hey, why don't you write a poem for your college essay? But I did, one of my essays was a poem. It wasn't intentionally to be unconventional or to try to impress anyone…because this is another thing is I didn't actually, when I initially applied to Dartmouth, I didn't know it was Ivy League. I was a very naive person and I just, a teacher of mine said I would be great there. So I did. And one night during the process, I woke up when I was a senior and I was like, oh my God, I think it's due January 1st. I don't think it's January 10th and I had the 10th in my mind. I ran downstairs and got out the paper copy and I was like, there it is, January 1st. And I think it was like December 29th or something like that. So I went to my job, which was at the Best Western. I was the front desk clerk at the Best Western. I don't know how they hired someone my age. And I sat at a typewriter and I was like, I better get going. But I felt like the best way for one of the questions was a poem. And I didn't, I don't know, I didn't have much guidance, so I just wrote a poem. And my sister was like, that's who you were. Just somebody who just did what they felt was like, always did what you felt was right. And usually it turned out okay because I was guided by my heart and my values, and I think I'm still that person. She, everybody I asked this question to, they kept saying, you're still the same person. You're still the same person. I'm like, is that boring?
LJR: That's good.
AK: And yeah, I was like, that sounds so boring. You're still the same person. They're like, no, it's, I guess I've evolved, but I think that I'm a very creative person who's guided by my values, but I also value the research and it was a good poem, right? It had structure and all the things that a poem should have. So I value like the rules, but I have that creative spirit.
So I came in like that and I thought I was gonna do either child psychology or law. And law probably would've been family law or something like that. And on my way out, I definitely knew I was going to be educating in some way, shape, or form. 'cause I did the education program with the small cohort. But I think when I left I was just…I was more grounded in my creativity. I was more grounded in my science. I was more grounded in the world. I was less naive. And I hope I was still the person that would write a poem, and not be stuck in the boundaries. And I think I am now. I hope I was then too.
LJR: Yeah.
AK: Yeah, and I was really excited coming in and really happy, and I definitely was super sad on the way out. I didn't wanna leave Dartmouth. I was, it was such a wonderful place for me, but I still think I'm a really excited person on a day-to-day basis.
LJR: Yeah, You had a lot of great friends and [AK: Yeah] was definitely fun. But the education part was really what, as you said, grounded you in lots of different things from the science side to the creative side. And so that program at Dartmouth, as you said, small cohort.
AK: Yep.
LJR: And with an in class. Like a teacher prep kind of thing. [AK: Yeah.] How did it work? Where did you go and then what did you know about what was gonna happen after?
AK: Okay, so I still thought I was gonna do child psych for quite some time, so I was still interested in law, but I decided, my initial psych classes that I was like, no I, this is the direction I was going in. My brother was on the path to be a psychiatrist, and in fact—we'll get to this point in the story—He did his residency at Mary Hitchcock. When I was doing my student teaching. [LJR: Oh.] So it was a kind of a nice overlap, but I soon, I decided, yeah, that was the approach that I wanted to go. And then I did a, for an, I don't know what it was called then—everybody's into internships now, but I think it was straight up volunteer or it was part of a class—where I went to Mary Hitchcock and day one they put me in the pediatric ICU. And it was really hard for me. Like it was just the emotional part of me. It was really hard. 'cause I went in one week and then the next week the child that I work with had passed. [LJR: Oh.] And it was like heart wrenching and I was, I just thought that was the world of—I don't know why I, that was the naive part—I thought that was the world of child psychology and I don't wanna do this.
And so I was starting to research a little bit of the education program and I found it. And then I found that you have to stay one trimester after. So you graduate and then you stay a trimester after to do your full-time student teaching. And during one of my off terms, I came home and I had part-time work at a consulting firm, which I think you can probably imagine I didn't love. And it was part-time. So I decided to fill in the other part-time with substitute teaching just because I wanted to make money. And so I was living at home and I would one day go into like the business world and I could do it, but I wasn't happy.
And then I would look forward to the calls where I was getting to sub and go into a school where I could just teach for the day. And so that kind of confirmed it for me that's, I definitely loved education and so I came back, I finished that. I was a psych and English major and then a teach—you couldn't major in education. I don't even know if you could minor in education.
LJR: I don't think so.
AK: I don't know. It couldn't even minor, which is something that makes me really sad that it's not something that's valued as a major. 'cause it could be a cognitive science. It should be a cognitive science. But I was like, it's what I wanna do. And I had a lot of relatives at the time saying, why are you going to an Ivy League school if you're quote unquote just gonna teach? Which was…but it gets back to my values. I think I was like, because that's what I wanna do and that's the right thing to do for me. So I'm going to teach and write a poem.
LJR: That’s right.
AK: It was that whole theme.
And I loved my group. We had a really great group of people in our teaching group, so that made it even better, I feel to be around all these really wonderfully creative, smart people who wanted to learn more about education. It was awesome. And the professors were awesome. They made it come alive in the cognitive science sort of way for me. 'cause I wanted that science piece. And then an unfortunate thing turned into a fortuitous thing, which was Kate Andrews at the time. Now, Kate Kelly. She tore her ACL and she had to red shirt. She decided to red shirt, so she stayed on campus post-graduation. That was hard for me. I was like, I'm gonna stay here where everybody leaves. This is so depressing. But she was one person who stayed. So Kate Shanahan, Kai Enos, Kate Andrews and I lived together during that summer. It was so fun, and we had a beautiful little home, like a professor who was on sabbatical, let us have his home, and my brother was there, like I said. He was there that semester for my semester. He was doing his residency, and so I had a new little community, which made it okay. Yeah, it made it okay. And I loved it. I got to teach in White River Junction and go to class, and Randy Testa was our professor who held us together, who I've kept in touch with.
It was awesome. I loved it. I loved it.
LJR: Great. And what grade level was that?
AK: That was elementary at the time. So I was in, I was teaching full-time at that point in a fourth grade classroom. I wanted the upper elementary at that point, and this kind of, you—we'll probably get back to this later with—part of that was because the science of teaching kids to read and write and speak and listen. So there's a lot of science around it and I just was like, I am not ready to do that. I don't have that. And so I didn't feel ready for that. I am now, and I became that later, but I wasn't at the time.
LJR: Yeah. So then that leap. It does seem a little off that you're taking one term. So like September through December, January, whatever. And then they're like, okay, you're done and in the middle of the school year and where are you gonna launch yourself? So how does that work?
AK: That's, it's funny that you asked that, 'cause I remember one of our last classes—'cause we had been together as a cohort for, I don't remember if it was a year and a half—and that was the culmination. And I remember Randy sitting with us at a table and saying, what, does anybody have any like really big remaining questions, things we haven't covered in the last like year and a half, two year? And I was like, yeah, how do you teach? What are we doing? Like we just go into a classroom and just start? And I, so I felt the same way and I was like, oh my God, we're not ready. And I don't remember exactly how he answered it. But yeah, I think that first year is demanding and I was able to go back and just jump right into a full-time substitute position, teaching in the system I had been subbing in. So they had already known me and they said, how do you feel about being the traveling science teacher? And I was like, not great, but if there's a curriculum that I can work with And it's, and I loved it 'cause it was super hands-on, like everything. And I had a cart and I loved it 'cause I was learning so much and I realized everything I had learned was I could use all the stuff that I learned, the cognitive stuff of how kids learn.
And then they offered me a position. It's funny, then they, one of the principals wanted me to interview for a first grade job, and I told her again, I was like, I don't, and she goes, just interview. And I said, okay. I interviewed and there was like a group of people and they said whatever the question is that you get at all jobs of: What's one of your weaknesses or, what's one area? And I said I really am not ready to teach first grade.
LJR: And they're like, oh, good. What are we doing?
AK: They're like, oh, I guess we shouldn't hire her. And the principal was there and she's “you already are.” And I was like “I'm not,” and I know in my heart and I still know to this day, I was like, you have to be ready to teach reading to a group of kids that are all at different cognitive levels and developmental levels. And it, I wasn't, and I think that's one of the hard things in education now is there's not enough support for that.
So anyways, I became…I did do some remedial reading stuff at that point, and I was splitting my time between Title I and eighth grade reading in a pretty low income school setting, which is still one of my favorite places I've taught. And that was wonderful. I taught there for a couple years and then I wanted to go back to San Diego 'cause I did the UCSD program at Dartmouth and that's how I met Karen Actually, Smith DeBolt now and Amy Duggan was with me. Those are my, as you said, my social. I had, I still have very great friends and I wanted to get back there 'cause I loved it. And a school in La Jolla knew Randy, the head of the school knew Randy Testa. So he pulled out my resume and I flew out and interviewed, and then I stayed there for four years, five years teaching, and I loved it.
LJR: Wow. Yeah. Okay. So that…
AK: And then I finally decided though, then I was like, I need the science. I was like, I need more science. I've done all my creative, I did my Southwest Creative California vibe. I need to go back to the Northeast and get my science balanced out again. So I did that. I came back and I did the language and literacy, and I became a learning specialist, reading specialist at the Harvard Ed School.
LJR: Got it. Got it. And so then you felt, okay, I have the tools that I've always known were missing. [AK: Yep.] Or felt were missing. That puts you back in the classroom, but not just as a teacher of young people. Right?
AK: Yes. Good job. Leslie does her research.
LJR: Not so much, but I'm just, I'm feeling my way.
AK: Yeah. Yeah, I graduated. And the funny thing too is Kate and I didn't talk to each other that we were both applying to grad school. And we both ended up at Harvard the same year.
LJR: Oh, come on.
AK: It was crazy. I was, I said, oh, I was talking to everybody. I think at that time we used to be doing—the six of us—used to do email updates, and it went from like once a week to once a month, but it was a lot to keep up with. But I remember saying, oh guys, I'm moving back to Boston and going to grad school. And Kate was like, so am I. And I was like, that is crazy. Like we didn't even talk about it. So it was awesome to be in Cambridge with Kate. And coincidentally, my brother had moved back, too. He came back to Mass General. So he was doing a fellowship. It was like everybody kinda came back together.
And so yeah, I got a position as a literacy coach for the district of Waltham. And initially I was in six schools teaching the science and the art of teaching, which is where my heart was and always was. It was like blending the science and the art and—as I like to say—the gift because you can have the science and art, but if you don't have a gift for teaching, you might not be cut for teaching.
LJR: So what do you think that gift entails?
AK: Okay. So I asked a student. I had two students this morning before this podcast, and I had told them, I said, oh, I'm doing this podcast. I was like, what do you guys think I should like, share about myself? And both of them said—they're younger, they're in elementary school—and they're like, you're fun. And I was like—they both said it separately. I had two separate sessions. And I was like—so I think there is a level of having fun with kids that people don't have necessarily, and just knowing what a particular child's fun looks like, or knowing how to blend the science and the art for that child and what they need that day, and when to pull back and when to push forward that you can't learn with science. You either know what a child can handle or how to make them laugh, or what tool to use, what day or when to scrap what you're doing and turn to something else.
LJR: And you could say those are probably learnable skills, but only from a baseline. This, they can get better with usage. [AK: Yeah] But you probably do need, [AK: Yeah] some sort of level of emotional intelligence, level of perception. [AK: Yeah] And that's an interesting insight that your kids. The fun. The fun thing. Like finding [AK: Yeah] in a quirky, weird joy. Like Six/Seven, what is that? Who knows? But we,
AK: Who knows?
LJR: But we know that it's joyful, right? And…
AK: Yeah.
LJR: Okay.
AK: It's funny you said that. 'cause last night a student of mine who I have, so now where I am—and we'll probably get to that—but I keep students for a long time now 'cause I work privately with them. But I had a student who I started with in seventh grade. I worked with him through middle school, through high school, through college, and now I'm working with him as an executive function coach in life. And he's trying to start a business. So I'm working with him and his team as an executive function coach, and just all three of them have a ADHD. So we're trying to—they have a great product—but how to organize that. And last night they're texting me at 1130 and they're like, can you meet? Can you meet? And I said, I probably can meet between six and seven. And I said, and don't make a stupid joke. Goodnight. That was my text to him. So just knowing that I could be like, I'm not talking to you guys till the morning. Good day and don't make a joke about six, seven.
LJR: People listening to this podcast years from now. They're gonna be like, what are they talking about? And we're like, we actually don't even know what we're talking about.
AK: We don't even know. We don't know. And I feel embarrassed even talking about it. 'cause I know how cringey it is.
LJR: Exactly.
AK: So, yeah.
LJR: Oh my gosh. Alright.
AK: So anyways, I worked as a literacy coach in the district with six schools. And then I was like, you can't really make progress with that many teachers in that many schools. So then they dropped me down to I think three. And we made a lot of progress. One thing I learned there that was I think amazing when it comes to the science, the art, and the gift of teaching is that I think a lot of people initially when I took that position, they're like, your younger teachers will probably be more open to this and it wasn't. It was the, it was whoever really valued those things, who valued ongoing learning and who valued the art and the gift and the science, and wanted to work on all of those things that they were able to make. One teacher, I would say, who made the most significant, like adjustments in her class was retiring that year. And she literally just was like, I'm willing to, let's try all of it. And it was, yeah, it was awesome. It was awesome.
LJR: Yeah. And yet you were very young at that point.
AK: Yeah, I had just come, let's see, I had been teaching probably only five years. [LJR: Yeah] And she was super open to everything and I learned a lot. You kind of Co-te..co-coaching, I would say. It's like I was learning from a veteran teacher and then she was learning from me.
LJR: Exactly. And so then, once you're in that sort of teach-the-teacher role, does that afford you the ability to dip back into the classroom? Or are you both seen externally and your own mental model for yourself like ‘I'm actually this educator of educators’ rather than a fun…
AK: You're so good at this. You're so good at this, Leslie, asking good questions. 'cause I just remembered. So the reason I took that job is because when I was about to graduate from grad school, they had offered me a position to teach three classes in the grad school and to pursue my PhD. And initially I was like, this is amazing. I'm not even like applying and they just are gonna give me this. And my heart again. I was guided by heart. I'm like, I don't wanna do this. I don't, I wanna, I got into this because I love children and I love teaching. And I, and not that I wouldn't do that, but I think I was gonna get bogged down in research and teaching college or graduate school wasn't what I was doing. So then I think I took the coaching position both out of interest, but I thought that seems like a logical next higher step. And then after a while I just missed teaching my own students. So I did go back into the classroom and that was for quite some time. First, as a English teacher in a middle school, and I was head of the English department. And then I had my own babies and then I took a little detour and opened up the Boston office of a test prep, boutique tutoring type of place. Learned a ton there about business 'cause I had to essentially run this office and hire people and train them and teach and do the budget and find real estate, blah, blah, blah.
And when I had my second baby, I realized I don't wanna be running a whole…I felt like I was running a company with a lot of people and test prep wasn't my heart. But I learned their philosophy, which was teach beyond the test rather than teach to the test. So I could get on board with that. Worked with a ton of schools in the area during that time, which was another great way to just network and make contact. And then I went back to being a learning specialist and loved it in a school. In fact, I was at that school this morning. I still work there, but I'm not employed by them. I'm a co, I go there on my own. So I worked there for a long time and I had a lot of families just saying, can you just work privately with me?
Can you do these hours? And I took the leap, I don't remember how many years ago. Let's see, my oldest son is about to be 20. He probably was six, so maybe almost 15 years ago. I've been had my own business, really,
LJR: Because you do think about educators, as you said, they're not supported and you don't get paid and all the things. But there is a flexibility level that you're like, oh, when you have kids: They're in school. I'm in school. This is gonna be a great thing. But you have a 6-year-old and you're like, ah, screw it. I'm gonna become my own thing. That seems bold.
AK: I’m gonna write a poem again.
LJR: I'm gonna write a poem. Wow.
AK: Yeah, I think I wrote another poem and my poem was, I'm going to just do this. But I felt, I think it was because I had a lot of families and a lot of schools that were, on board and willing to say they'll…They wanted me for X amount of time. [LJR: Yeah.] And my husband was a hundred percent on board. And it wasn't easy because kids are available either in the morning or if a school lets you come work on campus, or they're available after school. So for several years during that, when I was starting, when I was building my—the business, the whatever practice, whatever you wanna call it—I would put my kids to bed at seven or eight, and then I would go out till 11 or 12. I'd work in the morning, I'd try to get someone in the afternoon, and then I'd go out for four more hours, and then I'd go to bed. Start all over again.
LJR: So these, you were working then with kids of all ages because not everybody is staying up really late. So you must have older people.
AK: No, and I did not have first graders.
LJR: Yeah, yeah, okay.
AK: I would learn the balance of, I could have my elementary kids in the, maybe in the morning. 'cause they get up early and they like, I just, like I said, I had two this morning who are elementary age. I'll have some middle school kids. Then I could have some college. I work with college level 'cause I keep them for a long time. Then I'd have high school kids, the poor little high school kids that are up till all hours of the night trying to fit in everything. LJR: Yeah. Okay. So I know the diversity of that means that there is not a one-size-fit-all kinda approach that you take with them. But what are the range of things that you see with all your clients, let's say?
AK: I would say the majority of my kids have a language-based learning disability, whether it's dyslexia or expressive language, or receptive language some or writing. Struggling with writing. Those overlap. Many have ADHD processing speed. Unfortunately now, if everybody's read The Anxious Generation, probably an anxiety, a depression diagnosis. I've had high functioning autism. I would say that's the majority of the students. And they could have one or two or just overlapping diagnoses. And then sometimes it's just a student who's doing test prep 'cause I have that skillset or applying to college. I have a student who I am…this is an interesting one. I actually asked her yesterday, too, what I should talk about. I started with her for her college essay only, and the reason why she found her way to me was—she told me I could share this—So she has a whole host of medical issues. So it wasn't a learning disability at all. It was just she had a major organ transplant. She has another chronic disease, and her college counselor had told her not to write about that experience in her college essay, because she quote unquote, would look like a liability. And I was like…so they found her way to me and I was like, we can tell your story in a way that's a…I just feel again, you can write a poem. You are not gonna write it as a poem, but you should write your story and you should be able to. So when I asked her what I should say, she said, you help people tell their story and feel good about themselves. And I was like, oh. That's nice. I liked that I did that. So she doesn't have a language based learning disability or anything. Yeah, she just needed someone to support her through a process that was difficult.
LJR: Yeah.
AK: And so that's what I do with her.
LJR: That's amazing. So she came to you late, but many of these students, as you said, have a really long runway with you. Did you anticipate that when you started your practice?
AK: No, but I realize how important it is now even as a mom. [LJR: Yeah.] To have someone who knows a child. For a long time, like you're not re-explaining, especially with complex neuropsych reports. Yeah. That not every year you're having to re-explain yourself to someone or..
LJR: Right.
AK: Or not feel confident year after year 'cause you feel like you're starting over. I feel like I didn't anticipate that, but I also do a lot of parent work in terms of how to support a child with a learning disability, academically and socially. And I think that created that runway, as you said. And I love that. I love having that long-term relationship. The only problem is then I only have openings every now and then.
LJR: Right. But how…I mean, I think that's very unique. I do remember, I have kids two years apart and it was, oh, I'm gonna get another Rowley. And it feels like a bit of a continuation. But that's not the same as being able to see the kids year on, year and year. And I know that there are smaller schools that do a model of teachers following, and I just always thought there's some real benefits to that, so that must be [AK: Yeah] really great to see them all.
AK: It's so rewarding. And I do have families too. I have two boys that I work with and they're very different. But I've had them both for a long time, especially with like language based learning. It can take a while. For things to the strands, like the phonological awareness, the phonemic awareness, the comprehension, all that to come together. And when you see it start coming together, it's so exciting. [LJR: Yeah.] And for the parents to see that it's like really exciting. And I think that's something about the parents that, as we know as parents, it does, your kids make you feel so vulnerable, that's when you can know all the science in the world. It doesn't matter. So I think being there to reassure parents sometimes that they're gonna be okay. [LJR: Yeah.] We're gonna, they're gonna be okay because you're there for them and I'm here for them, and we'll make sure they're okay. That's all you want, really. I know that's all I want. I just want my kids to be okay.
LJR: Yeah, totally. And so this could be a forever endeavor for you, particularly when you have people that you're gonna stay with for, many years.
AK: Yeah.
LJR: What's the next chapter? How do you determine what that's gonna be?
AK: Oh yeah. So just recently my best friend from childhood who is a expressive arts therapist. Not a coincidence that, she also is a science art person. She and I have shared many students over the years whether they started with me and then I realized I think they could really have a real deep, heartfelt therapist work with them. And I've referred them to her, or vice versa. They needed help academically and she'd referred them to me. And then we decided to formalize that. We had talked about it for years and then we'd been working on it. So that's where we came up with, again, she and I have known each other since we were 10 or 11.
LJR: Oh!
AK: Yeah. So it was a natural thing for us to work together. And it's called Canvas and Cortex, which is Canvas being the art and cortex being the brain and the science. And it's bridging that overlap, particularly in parenting children with ADHD because my oldest son has ADHD and her youngest daughter has ADHD and it…but it's about the parenting piece of that mostly. We work with children for sure, both of us, but we realize that if somebody doesn't have a outside person following them the parent is that person. And there's a lot of science and art to parenting kids with ADHD that's very different than parenting a neurotypical child. Every child needs to be parented in a unique way, but there are some overlaps with ADHD. So she and I have just started doing some workshops and working with individual families and children collaboratively, and that's been really fun and helpful and nobody knows all the answers, but that was why we wanted to do this. Because the science and the art is always evolving and some parents know a lot of like cool things that they've done that work. And I think just having that resource with parents being able to talk to each other. So that's the next chapter right now. And it's really fun. And she and I love working together.
We were the two people that in high school would read boring texts out loud to each other in accents. Frankenstein was like a whole thing for us. Yeah, we would just sit in my room and read accented like, Shakespeare, we would read out loud. She actually went on to theater for quite some time, and when I was in San Diego, she was in L.A. So that's a full circle moment.
LJR: Wow.
AK: That's been super fun.
LJR: That's great. And you did…we missed this in the beginning, but you grew up in Massachusetts, so you are back home. This has been a home kind of thing for you, right?
AK: Yeah. Going back to the, your first question. I grew up around here and I grew up in a…both my parents are Greek. And growing up as a Greek girl, there's some Greek girl standards. Yeah. And so I didn't always fit those. My parents are perfectly fine. It was more like, I think on my dad's side of the family, I think I was the first person like not to marry Greek. So it was a very..
LJR: My Big, Fat Greek Wedding?
AK: those things could be like a challenge. Yeah. Oh my god, it's…Leslie, it was so true. Like my wedding, you can ask all my roommates. They were all there and it was very My Big Fat Greek Wedding with all of it. In fact, I'll tell you just a quick story 'cause it was funny: In the villages of Greece, when you get married, like you walk, 'cause there's no cars and like the musicians promenade you down to the church. And my dad really wanted that experience for me. I'm like, but dad, we live like miles from the church. Like, how is this going to happen? So he literally hired a violinist that was like from an island who had moved to New York. He brought him up to, and then while I was getting ready, the violinist would be like in the house, like playing Greek, like village music around me in my house. And now when I was like walking from my house to like the limousine. He's “wait.” And he would play the violin as I walked to the limo. And then he rushed like to the church before I got there. So when the door opened, he was also playing the violin. Like wherever I was, he was there. 'cause my dad really wanted me to have the full village, Greek village experience.
LJR: And you did. And that is a memory that will stay with you forever.
AK: Yeah. And so I think that's what brought me back is my family. I don't, this past weekend, daylight savings is my favorite day of the year to get the sunlight back. I think that's my Greek part that I'm like, I can't, I always say, dad, why did you settle here? Why are we here? But my, like I said, my brother came back and he and his fa…he works at MGH and his family's here, and my sister came back. She's a business woman partner in her company here. Cousins are here. And being able to raise my kids. We still have Sunday dinner at my parents' house a la My Big Fat Greek Wedding almost every Sunday with a whole spread. And the cousins and yeah. So I'll allow some blizzards in my life for that, that I just can't. No amount of sunshine can replace that for me.
LJR: Talk about…yeah. You said you were driven by your heart and your values and that is definitely where they started, I'm sure. And so it's nice to be able to pass that along and
AK: Oh, for sure. And I think that's very Greek, right? Their Greeks are very. Scientific, philosophical. And they're also very let's dance and eat and celebrate.
LJR: That's right.
AK: So I think that's probably where it is.
LJR: Well, Anna, you just, I know you have the gift. You have the gift for education and for caring about kids, and for caring about the science.
AK: You're so sweet.
LJR: It has been a gift to hear from you, and we're so
AK: Aw, you're so sweet.
LJR: We're so happy that you're finding new avenues to share those gifts with and can’t wait to see how the all it, how it all unfolds.
AK: Oh my God. I try to tell my students that like, just really find something you love because you can figure out how to make it work and you spend most of your days working, so find joy in it. And when I look at my Dartmouth girls, I feel like most of them do things they love. And I think that's like the best advice. And it's never too late to find something you love, I feel like.
LJR: I'm glad you're surrounded by people that you love as well. So all of our best to you and thanks so much for being here.
AK: Thank you.
LJR: That was Anna Kontos, who's a learning specialist, private tutor, and an educator of educators. She recently co-founded Canvas and Cortex, an integrated consultancy in the Boston area that provides family and school consulting, executive functioning, and A DHD coaching and workshops that blend creativity with research-backed strategies for students success.
What is the success for us? Getting our guest stories into the ears and hearts of more listeners? So we appreciate anyone who has rated or recommended roads taken to others to keep our audience growing, and a huge thank you to all the guests who have shared their stories. That's a wrap for this mini season, but if you subscribe or follow us, you'll always be alerted when more episodes are available with me, Leslie Jennings Rowley, on Roads Taken.