Angela Blair

About Angela

Angela Blair joined Interlochen Arts Academy in Fall 2020 after having taught English as an Additional Language in higher education for more than 15 years.

Before returning to her home state of Michigan and starting at Interlochen, Blair was a tenured ESL faculty member at Chabot College in the San Francisco Bay Area, and an adjunct instructor of ESL at Roosevelt University in Chicago, University of Illinois-Chicago, and Harper College in Palatine, Illinois. She received her M.A. in TESOL from San Francisco State University in 2005. As an undergraduate student at Hope College, Blair also studied dance and regularly performed in the dance department's productions. Additionally, she spent a semester immersed in French language and culture in Paris, France.

Blair’s fascination with second language acquisition and international travel started at age seven when her father’s job relocated her family to Stuttgart, Germany. She spent a year and a half attending a German elementary school and exploring Europe with her parents, her grandmother, and her two brothers. Having spent her childhood and adolescence as a classically trained ballet dancer, Blair is thrilled to be teaching at Interlochen, where she frequently draws on her own experiences as a young artist in helping multilingual learners of English achieve their academic and linguistic potential.

I teach emergent multilingual learners to use English to construct meaning, deconstruct complex texts and tasks, communicate across cultures, and build strong connections. My goal is for students to leave my classes feeling empowered by their ability to speak, read, and write in English confidently, while understanding that English is just one available tool in their diverse linguistic repertoire. I encourage collaboration and work to create a safe, community-oriented classroom where students recognize that language learning is a continuous process, and that mistakes are an integral and valuable part of their journey.