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Mary Cregan Master Class The Woman in the Mirror May 20, 2019 Hosted by New-York Historical Society FELLOWS Kimberly Adams Broome Street Academy Charter School, grades 11, 12, teaching 9 years, English I have done work in both my Journalism and English 12 classes looking at texts through a gender lens and doing research surrounding both American and global gender dynamics. I am passionate about engaging students of all genders in reflection on how gender norms and gender discrimination affects us all, not just women. I also find it more important than ever to bring awareness to elements of intersectionality when discussing feminism. Dalia Angrand Williamsburg Preparatory School, grades 10, 11, teaching 18 years, English Students often start out nervous and resistant when I ask them to write narratives, or to write creatively in any way. However, that resistance almost always turns to excitement as they begin to list, draw, diagram, and free-write about their lives, drawing power from their own stories. Over time, they craft compelling narratives: authentic responses to experiences, both positive and negative, that they often had no control over. Writing becomes a way for them to exert that control. Danielle Carniaux The Clinton School, grades 9, 12, teaching 8 years, IB Language and Literature This was the first year I integrated third-world feminism into my curriculum on post-colonial literature. It was a challenging and gratifying topic. Students agreed that western feminism (second- and third-wave) didn’t meet the needs of women of the third worlds, but they had a harder time understanding that third-world feminism isn’t just intersectional—it is unique to developing countries and their populations. Not every piece of literature that “talks back” to a male narrative is automatically third-world feminism, or even feminism. Students appreciated and grappled with scholarly articles on the topic. I’m already thinking about how to reteach it next year. Alicia Ciocca Millennium Brooklyn High School, grade 10, teaching 5 years, Qualitative Research Having taught American and World Literature, Memoir, and Qualitative Research courses, I find it gratifying to honor voices that have been silenced throughout history. I seek out knowledge that was excluded from the curriculum taught to me. In Qualitative Research, students complete participatory action research projects, picking a social issue to study, formulating research questions, collecting data, and determining a solution to the issue. Many groups have chosen topics like sexism and white feminism. I’m excited to bring the knowledge I will gain from this master class to these groups, as well as to inform my own English curriculum and Book Club work. Lori D’Amico Hunter College High School, grades 7, 11, 12, teaching 24 years, English 7, English 11, Gender and Sexuality in Literature, Art of Memoir I created an elective called Art of Memoir. It’s gratifying to watch the students write about their inner lives and experiment with techniques from the authors we read. Sometimes I’m awed by what they write. The most challenging aspect of the class is finding a balance between discussing the literature we read and encouraging the students’ own writing. I think the Memory Books that I have my students keep have helped them open up about their world on a regular basis. I also incorporate free writes on themes from the literature we read. Jessica Danser Talent Unlimited High School, grades 9–12, teaching 14 years, Modern Dance, Improvisation, Dance Composition, Senior Dance Practicum I teach mostly young women of color. Using creativity for self-empowerment is a vital part of my curriculum. Students investigate ideas that are meaningful to them as individuals as they cultivate a personal aesthetic. Candi Deschamps The Nightingale-Bamford School, grades 6, 8, 10, teaching 8 years, English Creative nonfiction is my favorite student work to read, but creating a space where students have license to be authentic (rather than just who they think they should be, especially to their teacher) is key. I ask them to ​ ​ avoid being overly “earnest,” and we define what that means. This year, my tenth-graders came up with my favorite definition yet: “dully sincere.” I try to create a space where students can be arch or elliptical, contemplative or provocative…as long as they’re not too earnest. Elizabeth Eagle The Packer Collegiate Institute, grades 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, teaching 21 years, Visual Arts and Photography In the summer of 2018, I taught a group of high school students in Coachella Valley, California, all children of migrant workers from Mexico and Honduras. From the beginning, the girls were either completely silent or reluctant to speak. The boys, however, were the opposite. Over two weeks, these young women began to transform into confident speakers, raising their hands to express their knowledge. In a video testimonial at the conclusion of the program, one girl said, “I NEVER raise my hand in class even though I know the answers, and now that I realize that my voice is valued, I can’t wait for school to start in the fall so that I can raise my hand first.” Kaitlyn Evans Urban Assembly School of Business for Young Women, grades 9, 10, 11, 12, teaching 8 years, English One of my favorite texts to analyze and discuss with students is Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's "We Should All Be Feminists". We watch her TED talk and read excerpts from her essay. We also use Beyonce's "Flawless" to make connections to relevancy and pop culture. There are so many multifaceted aspects to her ideas; every student identifies (and latches on to) a different theme in her writing. This makes for a powerful conversation around gender and power, with many opportunities for debate, differing opinions, and rich social critique. Eric Ferencz Stuyvesant High School, grades 9, 11, 12, teaching 11 years, Freshman Composition, American Literature, Women’s Voices In my elective Women’s Voices, we explore a variety of women’s issues. As a man teaching a course about women’s experiences, I’m always at a particular disadvantage. I’ve found great success in my curiosity, seeking out new texts and asking plenty of questions to fashion an enriching learning experience for my students. I’ve always been drawn to Woolf, and I’m excited to learn more and develop lessons based on her work. I’ve found success teaching Woolf’s theory of Judith Shakespeare as a means of exposing the frequency with which women were/are stymied from actualizing their potential. Arianne Garcia Rodeph Sholom School, grades 6, 7, 8, teaching 13 years, French and Spanish Last year, as a 7th grade advisor, I was a part of a philanthropy project that our school partakes in. My group of students selected LGBTQ+ and women's issues as topics of interest to them. It was really special to be able to visit a LGBTQ+ community center in Brooklyn, as well as the Manhattan NOW office to hear both organizations talk about the work they do. It was inspiring on a personal level and to be there with students. It was empowering for us all and connected us to the real world beyond the classroom. Within my language classrooms there are moments when we can talk about sexism in language or traditional gender roles reflected in our textbooks. I'd love to build more opportunities for students to evaluate the lens with which they view the world. Sometimes, working in a reform Jewish day school, I'm nervous to pursue this. Elizabeth Gray NYC iSchool, teaching 9, 10, 11, 12, teaching 11 years, English I love helping students find their own voices as writers, and it's particularly exciting working with students who may not have had the opportunity to be heard before as themselves. It's also exciting when teaching literature from underrepresented groups, as I do in Women's Literature, to see students who don't share their lived experiences beginning to develop true empathy through the written word. It was incredibly gratifying teaching "The Yellow Wallpaper" to a group of sophomore boys who were deeply impacted by the narrator's infantilization and deteriorating mental state. Literature's transportive effects are exciting to see in action. Christine Grenier West End Secondary School, grades 8, 9, teaching 7 years, English 9 (ICT class and self-contained), Living Environment (ICT class) This year, my co-teacher and I made an effort to have our students read books by diverse authors, including many female authors. Our ninth-grade students read The House on Mango Street, The Interpreter of Maladies, and ​ ​ ​ ​ Persepolis. When I was in high school, I read mostly classic, male authors. I love being able to choose the texts ​ my students will read and exposing them to the experiences of women around the world, and discussing how those texts relate to their own coming of age. Katherine Hoffman International High School at Lafayette, grades 9, 10, teaching 9 years, Visual Arts I start each class with my students writing about a work of art. Most of my high school-aged students have never had an art class before mine, very few have set foot in a museum, and only a small number are able to name even one artist at the beginning of the year. In my first years of teaching, I felt like it was my duty to make sure that the canon of artists I studied in college became familiar to them. I wanted them to not feel lost in conversations and institutions that revered these artists. My students and their lives were not reflected in the work I was asking them to connect to.

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