Meet Emily Logemann: Inspiring Young Readers and Writers in Grade 2

Grade 2 Teacher Emily Logemann is a dynamic educator with more than a decade of experience in both U.S. independent schools and overseas classrooms. With a bachelor of arts in History and a master of arts in Elementary Education, both from Columbia University, Emily brings a deep passion for childhood development, literacy instruction, and all-girls education. She joins us most recently from the Katherine Delmar Burke School, an independent girls’ school in San Francisco.

 

From an early age, Emily knew she was meant to be a teacher. As a child, she spent countless hours “playing school” with her younger brother — always taking the role of teacher. As she grew, she encountered educators who nurtured her curiosity and inspired her to lead with empathy and purpose. She often credits her high school Government and Civics teacher, Mr. Ralph Eckard, with showing her the power of community-building and using one’s voice to inspire others. These values continue to guide her classroom today.

 

Emily’s teaching philosophy has been shaped not only by her work in U.S. independent schools, but also by her summers teaching at Shanti Bhavan Children’s Project, a Pre-K - 12 residential school outside Bangalore, India. There, she taught everything from Kindergarten phonics to 12th-grade Shakespeare — an experience that demanded flexibility, collaboration, and deep resourcefulness.

 

Working alongside Shanti Bhavan’s students and teachers strengthened her belief that every child learns best when they feel nurtured, seen, and supported. This global lens informs the way she builds community and belonging in her classroom.

 

With 10 years of experience teaching in all-girls settings, Emily finds tremendous joy in guiding second graders as they develop independence, confidence, and a sense of collective problem solving.

 

“Get a group of second grade girls together, and they could solve almost any major world problem,” she jokes. She appreciates how girls at this age collaborate naturally, create fair systems, and support one another. She feels aligned with Baldwin’s mission to inspire girls to work together for the benefit of our shared community.

 

Emily believes that voice and choice are essential for helping young readers and writers flourish. Students read books that match their interests and “just right” level, and they write for real audiences — whether to teach, entertain, or persuade. These opportunities help students see themselves as capable, authentic authors whose words matter.

 

She also teaches students about the science of learning. When a child struggles through a tricky math problem or decodes a challenging word, she cheers: “Your synapses are firing!” By helping students understand how their brains grow, she equips them with confidence, resilience, and ownership over their learning. “When students have a deeper understanding of metacognition and their unique learning profiles, they become more empowered, confident learners,” she explains.

 

In her classroom, Emily teaches the UFLI (University of Florida Literacy Institute) phonics program, a research-backed, highly structured approach to foundational reading instruction used at Baldwin for Kindergarten – Grade 2.

 

UFLI offers:

Students quickly gain confidence as they decode new words, understand spelling patterns, and recognize that English — contrary to myth — is not random, but a structured and logical language. “The English language is actually a highly ordered linguistic system,” Emily says. “Every word is spelled the way it is for a very specific reason. While other programs rely on memorization of word lists and classification of some words as simply ‘outliers,’ UFLI gives students the tools and skills to understand why words are spelled the way they are, which empowers them to be more confident readers and writers.”

 

Each lesson follows a predictable eight step routine with activities that support phonemic awareness, grapheme-phoneme correspondence, knowledge of specific phonics patterns, decoding and encoding, and reading and spelling high frequency words. “As a teacher, I appreciate that UFLI’s approach is supported by the science of reading,” Emily says. “Students love the predictable routines and quick transitions from one activity to the next, which provides a sense of novelty.” 

 

Emily compares literacy to a house: phonics is the foundation upon which all comprehension, writing, and higher-level thinking are built. Rather than being a skill reserved only for emerging readers, phonics is essential throughout the elementary years. Strong phonics skills allow students to read more complex texts and use richer vocabulary in their writing. One of her favorite moments is seeing students apply phonics patterns independently in their writing. That’s when she knows the skills have truly taken root.

 

One of her favorite books to share with young girls is The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes by Mark Pett and Gary Rubinstein. Its message — that mistakes help us grow — is a theme woven throughout her classroom. She encourages students to see errors as opportunities, fostering courage, curiosity, and creativity. Emily brings to Baldwin a remarkable blend of experience, global perspective, joyful energy, and deep commitment to girls’ education and literacy development.