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.

Over the last three years I have taught World History I Standard and Honors, World History II, Government and Law and Contemporary Issues at Medford High School. I graduated cum laude from Suffolk University in 2003 with a major in History and a double minor in Fine Art and Secondary Education.  History has always been a love of mine because of the great connections that can be drawn across time, disciplines and belief systems. The study of history offers an opportunity to examine and discuss how mankind has come to its current understandings of the world and of the human condition. For me, teaching is the greatest job on the planet. Every hour as a teacher there are opportunities to learn and to help young adults actively see their world in  new depth and from new perspectives.

My love for history probably began as a passenger in my parents’ station wagon on a journey across country from Boston to Texas, and then California, where my father was stationed as an officer in the United States Air Force. Before the age of five, I had seen the American West, its open spaces, buffalo, and mix of cultures and geography. This, along, with spending my elementary school and high school years in the Boston area, where family outings included re-enactments at Lexington and Concord, trips to Plymouth Plantation, and tours of the Kennedy Library, probably sealed my interest in the history of the United States.

At Columbia University, I majored in history with a concentration in United States history. During my senior year, I was privileged to take a seminar with Professor James P. Shenton, in which I wrote the equivalent of a master’s thesis on the political aspirations of Douglas MacArthur following his ouster by President Truman. I have taught a variety of history and social studies classes over the course of my teaching career, including: U.S. history from Discovery to Reconstruction; World History from Rome to Napoleon; Ancient Civilizations; and World Cultures and Geography.

My involvement in Voices Rising has allowed me to stay true to the mission of both teaching and learning more about the past. It has also challenged me to go back to those lessons in historiography that Professor Shenton gave all of us in his seminar. In revisiting the past and exploring the primary sources that are the building blocks of history, I hope that I have helped breathe new life into American voices that may not otherwise have been heard. Hopefully, they will capture the imaginations of today’s students, inspiring them to explore the past and to appreciate the lives, contributions, and struggles of those who came before.

We Library Media Specialists are always searching for information, especially primary sources, to assist students with project-based research. Voices Rising provided a unique opportunity to hear the lectures of Boston’s preeminent scholars of American History — Bob Allison, Ken Greenberg and Louis Masur as they recounted key events in the development of our nation. The interactions with history teachers from Medford, Malden and Everett provided new perspectives on historical matters and generated a fresh approach to the U.S. History curriculum standards while the walking tours through the freedom trail, visits to Boston Public Library, Massachusetts Historical Society and Minuteman National Historical Park introduced me to valuable resources.

My Bachelor of Music degree was earned at U.Mass. Lowell and I completed the Master of Education in School Library Media Studies at Bridgewater State College. I have served as Library Media Specialist at Medford High School since the year 2000.