I have been teaching ELL for 18 years, the last seven of which have been at the McGlynn Middle School.  Ed reform has brought many new and exciting changes, so I teach not only English but also social studies to grades 6-8.  Consequently, I find myself trying to stay one chapter ahead of the curriculum by reviewing American history and using the internet to expand my understanding and knowledge.  Voices Rising is the perfect professional development opportunity for me!  I look forward to becoming a student of history to fill in the gaps in my own education and to gain a deeper insight into the building of our new nation.

I have been teaching in Medford for the past eight years. In my time at Medford I have had the privilege of teaching World History II standard, Honors and Advanced Placement European History. I received my B.S. degree in Political Science from Bridgewater State College, and I earned my M.Ed. in Secondary Education from Salem State College.

I teach art in Medford at the Mcglynn Middle School. I have been teaching for 30 years. I earned a bachelor’s degree fron Salem State College in education/art and a master’s degree from Lesley University in education/creative arts. Since 1994, I have been an active participant in the National Gallery of Art, in Washington, D.C; and MASSART, in Boston, teacher institutes on various periods of art history. I have attended institutes on impressionism, early American art, art in the industrial age, modern art and Dutch and Flemish art as well as one on art and architecture in the U.S. during the industrial period. Each of these institutes provided a greater understanding of the historical period studied through the lens of art.

Since attending these institutes, I’ve included a lot of art history and history in my curriculum. After all, you can’t have art history without knowing the history of the world at the same time. I am always looking for new sources of information for the historical part of the art lessons.

I have been a library teacher in the Medford Public Schools for 12 years and currently work with K-5 students at the Brooks Elementary School.  I love introducing my students to the world of information and research and believe in using teaching methods that both engage students as well as foster inquiry learning.

During my own elementary and high school years I dreaded history classes.  They were just a lot of reading, studying, and testing.  I did what I had to do to get the marks my parents insisted on, and I retained very little after I took those tests.  Worse, I had no interest.  Then I married a history buff and found myself drawn to the same historical novels and television programs that my husband enjoyed.  After I became a teacher, it occurred to me that my lack of interest in school was not the subject area but the way in which it was taught.

I am a third grade teacher at the Roberts Elementary School in Medford Massachusetts.  I have been teaching for over twenty years.  In our third grade curriculum we study Massachusetts from the Pilgrims to the Revolutionary War.

I became interested in history at a very young age.  My Aunt Mary Darcy was the Executive Secretary for both the Civil War Centennial Commission and the Revolutionary War Bicentennial Commission for the state of Massachusetts.  She included her nieces and nephews in many of the events and activities that she would attend.  I had a front row seat at many of these occasions, such as the reenactment of April 19th in Lexington and Concord.  When I was twelve Aunt Mary took me on a trip to Washington, D.C.  On the way we visited many of the Civil War Battle sites.  In Washington I ate in the Senate dining room and went out to dinner with a Congressman.  These experiences taught me to appreciate the history of our country.

I have taught history for the past three decades in the Medford Public Schools. I earned my B.A. in History from the University of Massachusetts and a M.Ed. from Cambridge College. While attending Tufts University, I received a certificate in Museum Studies. Teaching history and trying to preserve historic sites and artifacts have been the driving force in my career.

During the past thirty years I have had the good fortune to “live history” in several capacities. I served as Resident Site Administrator for the Isaac Royall House in Medford from 1984 to 2002. I also had the pleasure to serve as President of the Medford Historical Society from 1996 to 2006. While serving in both of these positions, my goal was to forge a working relationship with Medford students and both of these institutions.

I have been a teacher in Project LOCAL (Learning Our Community's American Lore) for the last three years. This year, I am a member of the freshman class in Voices Rising. These two programs have helped me engage students and make the study of history interesting and relevant to them.

At present I am a member of the Medford Historical Society, the Royall House Association, the Griffin Museum, the Bostonian Society and the Middlesex Canal Association.

I am an ELL teacher at Medford High School teaching sheltered immersion classes in U.S. and World History along with regular education classes to 10th graders in World History as well. I have been teaching at Medford High for two years. I obtained a B.A. in History at Worcester State College and am currently working on my master’s degree at Salem State College. Prior to working at Medford High, I worked at Hudson High School for three years as a special education teacher’s aide, ELL department translator and as a permanent substitute for Spanish. I enjoy working with students and children of all ages and fostering our future’s minds. History interests me because of all topics it engulfs and the variety of which we can teach it through each generation.

I have been teaching World History I and II, standard and honors, to ninth and tenth graders at Medford High School for the past seven years. I came to the Boston area after growing up in Syracuse, NY and then obtaining my B.A. in History and Secondary Education (minor in Business) at Washington University in St. Louis, MO. Subsequently I earned my M.Ed. in Secondary Education at Salem State College.

I love being an active member of the Medford school community. I have served as a class advisor for the past three years, a teacher mentor and a tutor for students on home instruction. My most exciting job, however, has been to produce and direct the high school's talent show not once, not twice but five times.

It has been a great honor to work in all capacities at Medford High. I have fantastic supportive, caring coworkers and truly wonderful people as students. I grow as an educator and learner every day and am grateful for the numerous oportunities offered to do so. I am especially thankful for the chance to participate in the Voices Rising project as it has allowed me to vastly improve my knowledge and understanding of history and pedagogy.

I was born in Boston and grew up west of the city near historic Lexington and Concord. My passion for the past pushed me to venture south to Gettysburg College where I had the honor of working with Dr. Gabor Boritt.  I then went on to Temple University for an M.A. in American Social and Cultural History where I focused on early twentieth century race riots, Irish American history, and the American Civil War. Since then I have lived in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and now Salem, Massachusetts. I have been very involved in public history, working for the African American Museum in Philadelphia, the Tsongas Industrial History Center in Lowell, participating in Civil War Living History, and creating interpretative programs as a seasonal Park Ranger at the John F. Kennedy National Historic Site in Brookline. This fall, I will begin my seventh year of teaching World History II and my fourth year of teaching United States History II at Medford High School.