Sharon Weir, the Middle School Dean of Studies and middle school social studies teacher, has taught at Northwest Academy for 21 years, making her one of the longest-serving staff members. As a dean, Weir directly influences the middle school curriculum and schedule.
“I like thinking about the big picture,” said Weir. “The work I do [as a dean] is more about curriculum, teacher support… [and] looking at larger pictures of the curriculum.”
Weir was Assistant Head of Middle School from 2019 to 2025. She directed COVID protocols as well as how the school transitioned online during the pandemic. She believes this work helped her develop leadership skills important to her current position.
“Sharon and I are also on, along with all the deans, the leadership committee, so we meet with marketing, admissions, fundraising and all of those elements of running the school,” said Russell Hanes, High School Dean of Studies. “It’s great working with Sharon. She’s committed to the school… She’s very open minded, very easy to talk to and knows the school inside and out and has the school’s best interest at heart.”
Weir has held a variety of positions at NWA, but her passion is teaching Project Citizen, the seventh grade social studies class about the U.S. government. Each year she likes to slightly change the curriculum to stay up-to-date with current events and keep each group of students engaged.
“[Project Citizen] is a very responsive class,” said Weir. “There was a time when we had an Occupy movement downtown and the kids were really engaged by that, and they were really curious about economics and the economics of our capitalist society and so I added a whole bunch of stuff about that.”
Weir realized that not all her students had an interest in local politics, so after a year, she changed the curriculum of the class again to match current events and the students’ interests. Her main goal is to educate students on government events and improve student essay structures.
“I was really bad at writing structured analytical essays before Sharon’s class, and her class helped me improve on that a lot,” said Eleanor Dysart-Hanes, a sophomore.
Weir started at NWA in 2005 as the Ancient Civilizations and Project Citizen teacher, though at the time Project Citizen was called U.S. Constitution. Both classes followed a textbook reference called We The People, which Weir described as “basic.”
“I very quickly jumped off from that textbook and crafted and created things of my own,” said Weir. “[I] used what was helpful and useful there, but made it my own.”
Soon after Weir was hired to teach Speech and Debate and Learning Lab. She quickly started to change the curriculum of Learning Lab to better suit the current students’ needs. Specifically she added lessons such as note-taking strategies, mindfulness exercises and healthy studying habits. The class also combined all middle school grades to encourage cross level friendships.
Though Weir has been a social studies teacher for a long time, she went into college unsure what to do. When she was young, she was interested in becoming a lawyer. She soon changed her interest to museum arts around high school. Weir’s parents were teachers and initially she didn’t want to follow their path.
Weir majored in Art History and minored in Arts & Administration at the University of Oregon hoping to go into museum education. After a year she realized teaching in a school setting was her calling, so she went back to school to get a post bachelors degree in Social Studies at Portland State University.
When she first learned about NWA she mailed in her resume. The week before school started Weir was interviewed by Mary Folberg, the founder, and soon after was offered a position.
“When I found this school, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, wow. I could teach art history there,’” Weir said. “That’s pretty cool because I also wasn’t totally my dad. He taught AP U.S. History in high school and all this stuff. And I was still very much like: ‘I’m not gonna do what my dad did.’”
Weir’s dad passed away right before she started teaching at NWA. Now that she teaches a social studies class, the overlap with her dad’s work makes her feel a kinship with him.
“He knew I was on my way to being a teacher,” Weir said. “Every day I really think about him and the work I do.”
Weir has also encouraged several long term staff members to join the school. For example, when Jada Pierce, the High School Humanities 4 teacher, first moved to Portland she lived right next to Weir, who told her about NWA. Pierce realized the school’s ideals closely aligned with her interests. In 2008, Pierce applied and has now been at the school for 18 years.
“Have you ever heard [of] six degrees of Kevin Bacon? I’d say that’s what Northwest Academy is,” said Pierce. “It’s like everybody has some… story. If you really start tracking, ‘how did you find out about Northwest Academy?’ or, ‘how did you end up working here?’ it all points back to Sharon.”
Throughout her years of working at NWA, Weir has inspired several teachers to model their curriculum after some of her social studies classes.
“I have often looked to her as an example of how you can create systems and be better organized so that you can do what you need to do more gracefully and more effectively,” said David Berkson middle school Humanities and performing arts Teacher. “We’re really, really lucky to have Sharon. She is somebody that I respect and admire a lot.”
Yay Sharon!!! I didn’t know so much of this, what a great article.