Overview

In this section of my portfolio, I've compiled some of my best work from my student teaching semester at Community Preparatory School, a small but super diverse independent school in Providence, Rhode Island.  I had the honor of leading two 7th grade social studies classes under the mentorship of a veteran social studies educator.  A semester of student teaching is a requirement of the MAT program. 

After a couple weeks of observing, I took the reins from a veteran social studies educator and began teaching solo.  While I was teaching, our class mostly focused on American slavery.  The essential questions for the unit were:

1. Why do we study history?

2. What is the legacy of slavery?

I began the unit by having students consider themselves as historians and thinking about their own personal histories.  Then we constructed some knowledge about the African Slave Trade by undertaking a map project.  During the map project, I asked students to consider where they would fall on these maps in order to ground the activity in their own experiences and heritages. Before focusing our attention on reading slave narratives from Julius Lester's To Be a Slave, I asked students to define history and ruminate on why we study it in order to get them thinking about the role of empathy in history. We then discussed the complexities around the production of slave narratives.  Finally, students were able to read and interpret the text.  Students were ultimately able to study slavery from an emic perspective, particulary from the perspectives, voices, and sometimes the very words of those who were enslaved.   

This part of my portfolio is organized according to the seven practice-based standards created by the Teacher Education faculty of Brown University in cooperation with other members of the Brown University Education Department and the Greater Providence school community.  These standards define objectives and set guidelines for future educators in the MAT programs.  You can view a more detailed list of these standards here. 

On the main page of each standard is a description of the standard in italics and a brief overview of how I have met the standard during BSHS.  Under each standard are artifacts, composed of student work, lessons, and other relevant documents, that correspond to that standard.  Please note that some images have been altered in order to protect the identities of my students.  

I hope you enjoy exploring some of the work my students and I completed during my student teaching semester at Community Preparatory School!