Mrs. Milbrandt- English Department
Mrs. Milbrandt- English Department
A: I am a mom of two kids. They are at St Odilia’s in 2nd and 4th grade. However, prior to teaching here, I was working for several years, I would say almost nine, at the University of St. Thomas where I taught family business classes to undergraduates. So I was a teaching assistant as well as a doctoral student, and I am finishing up my doctorate right now in Organization Learning and Development which is a multidisciplinary field of scholarship and practice. Connections to this area of study and my current work at Visitation are, 1) the central focus on learning which is a core component, 2) the relationship to applied learning which is also foundational, and 3) my love of narrative inquiry which is central to the study and critique of literature!
At St. Thomas, I worked directly with the students on research about family business, while also developing the curriculum for the classes and conducting original research.. Since then, I have worked in about six different schools across the Twin Cities, going back to my first love of English and Theatre Arts! Over the last few years, I have held positions as a long-term substitute in some great schools across the Twin Cities, most recently having taught 11 and 12 grade at Holy Family. One of the things that I love the most about English Language Arts is that it is an applied skill that you can use in any future discipline. I really enjoy helping others work to get better at expressing what they are trying to convey to an intended audience and developing documents that are informative, appealing, and easy to understand.
Q: Now for the classic English teacher question: What would you say is your favorite book?
A: I have lots of favorite books, so that is a tough question because I love them all for different reasons. I’m going to say one that I have read multiple times, and that would be “A Prayer for Owen Meany” by John Irving. I first read that book when I had just graduated from high school. It is really well written and it had some aspects of the story that really connected to where I was at that time in my life and I have read it twice since then. It’s actually told in a retrospective memoir, so the voice of the author is middle-aged and he tells the story of him growing up and events that happened during the time when he was becoming a man, so what resonated for me was connecting with that character in that journey of growing up and now being able to reflect backward.
Q: What would your ideal travel destination be?
A: Well, I’ve been to a lot of places. I believe that anywhere on the Equator is good because you’re going to get better weather any time of the year that you go. I have traveled to South America, through Africa, a lot of the United States, and into Canada. However, I think right now the two places that I have not been to which I would really love to travel to would be Alaska or somewhere in Asia, possibly Japan. Although I travel with kids, so if I were to travel with my family- Disney World.