Class of 2001
Ballute, Sara
Global History teacher, NY Times "teacher who makes a difference"
I am working at the High School for Service and Learning at the Erasmus Hall Campus. Erasmus is the second oldest high school in the US. About 15 years ago it started to go down hill and in the 1990's it was put on the Mayor's Impact list of schools in jeopardy of being shut down for failing rates, drop out rates, and violence. The city started to break up a lot of the big schools into several small schools. Working with community based organizations, a collection of schools were created and now there are six completely separate schools in Erasmus. I am teaching 10th grade this year and I have the same group of 120 tenth graders that I had when they were in 9th grade. There are ups and downs to this small school setting and we still have a ton of kinks to work out but I really love knowing all of the students and the small community we have. We officially got off the impact list last year after being under serious observation for years. Usually on a weekly or bi-weekly basis we would have a group of people from the city come into the school. I would be teaching and about 10-12 people would walk in with their clip boards and I had to go on teaching like nothing was happening. They would open up kids notebooks without saying anything to them and walk all around the room. It was extremely stressful and frustrating since they never debriefed us or offered any feedback.
I visited one of the Frederick Douglas schools that I know IC has worked with. They really are amazing schools in comparasion with other schools in NYC. Great achievement records and accomplishments for sure. I think it would also be great for education students to see other schools in the city to get an idea of the situation and environment of city schools. If you ever have a group or individuals who are in the city and interested in observing or doing a lesson, I would love to show them around and have them as guests in my school. You too of course!
I wanted to share with you that last night I was honored at the New York Times as a "teacher who makes a difference." My student, Francis, was awarded one of twelve NYTimes scholarships this year and he in turn was able to recognize a teacher. It is a very generous award and I am just touched by it. I truly love what I am doing in Brooklyn. Very stressful, but this award just gave me a breath of fresh air.
sballute@hotmail.com
Cole, Michael J.
World History and American History teacher
Homer High School (2001-2006)-Homer, NY
Weymouth High School (2006-Present)-Weymouth, MA
National Honor Society Advisor
Football and Basketball Coach
United Planet Volunteer in Romania
Teaching American History Grant Participant
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History Participant
Congressional Youth Leadership Council Nominating Teacher
EF Educational Tours in Italy Chaperone
michaelcole79@gmail.com
Grob-Fitzgibbon, Ben
Professor of Imperial and British History
Things here in Arkansas are well. The family are all doing great.
Amanda is continuing to work as a physical therapist at the rehab
hospital here, and the girls are growing at a remarkable rate. Sophie
will turn 4 this June, and Isabel has just turned 2. The city of
Fayetteville is a nice college town. At a population of 69,000, it is
small enough that we know pretty much everyone (or it feels that way,
at least!) and large enough to have a lively feel and some good
restaurants. It is also very hilly, in the foothills of the Ozarks
(who knew Arkansas had hills?), and in that regard it feels very much
like Ithaca.
Professionally, things could not be much better. The University of
Arkansas, as the state's flagship univeristy, is a research I
institution, so I have a 2-2 teaching load. As I'm quickly realizing,
though, that doesn't mean I spend less time teaching; I'm merely
involved in a different type of teaching. I probably spend more time
in meetings with grad students than I do prepping and lecturing to
undergrads! As far as undergrad teaching is concerned, I teach a
four-semester sequence in imperial and British history (so each course
is offered every other year) which includes Modern Imperialism,
Tudor-Stuart Britain, Georgian-Victorian Britain, and Twentieth
Century Britain. Then each fall I teach the honors World Civ II course
(which as an honors course is capped at 25). In the summers I teach
courses on World War Two and Modern Terrorism. In the one remaining
course slot I have in my schedule (in the spring semester) I teach a
graduate seminar each year. This semester we are looking at war and
peace in British history. Outside of these regularly scheduled
courses, I usually also teach 2-3 graduate tutorials each semester
(meeting for a couple of hours every other week) and I presently have
2 PhD candidates and 7 MA candidates under my supervision. I graduated
my first MA candidate this past spring.
In terms of research, as I think you know, my last book was published
by Palgrave Macmillan in 2007, titled "Turning Points of the Irish
Revolution: The British Government, Intelligence, and the Cost of
Indifference, 1912-1921." I'm currently working on a new and exciting
project looking at British counterinsurgency after the Second World
War, provisionally titled "Imperial Endgame: British Counterinsurgency
and the End of Empire." I am exploring the counterinsurgencies in
Palestine, Malaya, Kenya, Cyprus, Aden, and Dhofar that occurred in
the years 1945-1960, trying to figure out how exactly the British
government was able to wage several such campaigns simultaneously.
bjgrobfi@uark.edu
Reed, Carrie
Global History teacher
Currently teaching global history 9/10 at St. Anne Institute in Albany, NY - it is a residential treatment facility for "troubled" young ladies grades 7-12.
I am current working on getting Students with Disabilites certification.