• For the last three years of my teaching tenure, I taught Middle School Science at Baltimore Collegiate School for Boys (BCSB), located in Baltimore, Maryland and within the District of Baltimore City Schools [See relevant school-related data dispensed by the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE)].

• School Information: BCSB is an exclusively male charter school serving students that are almost entirely (i.e. over 99%) African American [2 of 87 students in Grade 7 were of European descent, none identified as having been of Hispanic origin]; it is located in the inner city of Baltimore, Maryland and is plagued by the perils prevalent in the surrounding environs: homicide, illicit drugs, chronic violence, poverty, high rates of Black male incarceration and family fragmentation. [See related articles for a detailed description of the socioeconomic conditions facing Black males in Baltimore City and comparable urban areas: Article I, Article II, Article III.]

Resource restriction was an impediment to optimal instruction at my institution. Student access to technology was limited, with carts of mobile laptops (whose number could only be estimated due to inadequate inventory and upkeep) that were only intermittently accessible, and needed to be reserved days or weeks in advance. Sharing of such limited technology among several grades was necessitated.

Resource allocation to scientific equipment was similarly far from adequate, with dilapidated and often dysfuctional lab materials upwards of decades old and no new expenditures thereupon for the last two years of my tenure. Moreover, I met with an outright refusal from the administration to invest in new science texts and a new NGSS-aligned curriculum edorsed (though not dictated) by the school district, dispite having attended a grant-funded summer workshop at a local University providing extensive training in the implementation of the innovative curriculum. Laboratory exercises were limited (though not eliminated) as a consequence of these constraints.

I assiduously labored to ensure that these material limitations impacted my students to a negligible degree and I expended considerable amounts of personal time and my own financial resources to offset this administrative/institutional austerity.

I enthusiastically assumed multiple extracurricular roles in the school setting, including physical training, dietetics, Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs, and martial arts. Several of the aforementioned activities were formally integrated into the school day and identified as "Activity Block" at the close of conventional academic classes. These activities afforded me additional opportunites to bond with students, to model certain elements of character (e.g. self-discipline and optimal health) that I deem to be ideal and they provided energetic outlets for many students whose neighborhoods were often too dangerous to permit safe recreation.

• Classroom Information: I taught four 60-90 minute classes per day of 7th grade Science. My classes were comprised of 20-25 students, with an average of 23 in each. Sixteen of my students had IEPs and were roughly evenly distributed among my four classes. Once weekly I counseled and mentored a select group of eight BCSB students, providing support that often extended outside of the classroom.

Individualized instruction and academic enrichment are integral aspects of my teaching methodology. I am alike wedded to the Hellenic tradition that saw the philosophically examined life as the only life worth living, to Enlightenment tradition that considered scientific education to be the key to the progressive betterment of mankind and to the Ancient Egyptian tradition, embodied in its Elect Priesthood, that self-mastery necessitates a lifetime of laborious study that is ultimately liberating. I have succeeded to a substantial degree in instilling these ideals into my students and I am confident that, in so doig, I have shown myself to be a truly transformative teacher.