Hartford school orientations with Trinity Educ 200 students

Trinity Educ 200 orientation with coordinator Erin Doyle (3rd from left) at ELAMS.

When I teach the introductory Educ 200: Analyzing Schools course at Trinity College, one of my favorite parts is introducing my students to different Hartford schools where we place them for their weekly participant-observation sessions with classroom teachers. My students’ minds turn on when reality challenges them to confront the stereotypes that many of us carry about “urban education,” and their eyes light up at the opportunity to escape the “Trinity bubble” and play a meaningful role in the education of people younger than themselves. My Trinity colleagues and I invest a considerable amount of time and energy to build lasting relationships with our coordinating teachers in each school, who help us to schedule the logistics and come to campus at the end of the semester to evaluate students’ culminating projects. This community-learning component is so central to Trinity students’ learning experience that I cannot imagine what teaching this urban education class would be like without it.

Orientation with Enid Camacho-Cruz (4th from left) at Burns Latino Studies Academy.

Pleasantly surprised to run into Brigit Rioual ‘14, a new staff member at Montessori Magnet, who took Educ 200 with me in Fall 2011.

Trinity Educ 200 orientation at Montessori Magnet School.