Emily Lake

Position/Title: Teacher

Name of School: Talented and Gifted School for Young Scholars

DBN: 04M012 Superintendent: Alexandra Estrella

Personal Statement: After graduating from Seton Hall University in 2013 with a B.A. in history and an M.A. in museum studies, I began my career working at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Lower Manhattan. I loved working with student groups and became inspired to be a teacher. Due to my background working in museums, incorporating visual learning strategies and hands-on, creative activities into the Social Studies curriculum is important to me. I want to provide my students will multiple points of entry to Social Studies learning and help them to understand that history is not confined to textbook learning. I work with a gifted population at the Talented and Gifted School of Young Scholars, so blending both engagement and rigor is essential to meeting my students’ needs. I graduated from Hunter College with my master’s degree in Adolescent Education: Social Studies in 2017 and I also completed the James Madison Memorial Foundation Fellowship at Georgetown University for exceptional teachers of the Constitution. Building citizenship skills and helping my students develop informed opinions about current events rooted in a thorough understanding of U.S. History is also something that I am extremely passionate about as a teacher. I strive to teach my students how to engage in civil discourse, understand one another’s points of view, and learn to disagree politely on issues they are passionate about. I consider these to be fundamental, real world skills for sustaining a strong and healthy democracy.

Ages/Grades of students: 5-6 Grade

Number of years in school: 1

Years in education: 1