Emily Berman

My drive to improve public education, paired with my love for teaching science, is what inspired me to enter the teaching profession. I have stayed in the teaching profession because I have seen that empowering students to self-advocate and resist oppression is the best way I can improve an educational system that I benefited from.”

Emily’s Story

Teaching Disciplines

Biology and Chemistry

Why Science

“I love teaching science because I feel it is the best lens to study and better understand the world around us and our communities.”

Volunteer Experience

During her freshman year at Wesleyan University, Emily got involved with Wesleyan Science Outreach, a service and education organization that designs and implements a series of weekly, hands-on, after-school science activities for local elementary school students. Two years later, she took over running the organization. In this role, she taught a service-learning course to her peers who helped develop lessons for the science club. This experience ignited her interest in teaching as a profession. Emily also worked as an after-school science teacher at the local Boys and Girls Club and tutored English language learners at the International House while studying to earn an MAT from Brown University. While studying abroad in Ecuador, she extended her stay to teach English—and conduct science, math, and social studies lessons in English—to fourth and fifth graders at La Escuela Bilingue Los Algarrobos. 

Professional Experience

During the 2014–2015 academic year, Emily taught seventh- and eighth-grade science at The Learning Community Charter School in Central Falls, Rhode Island. In the fall of 2015, she began teaching at Blackstone Academy Charter School, where she has taught various science courses to students in grades nine through 12. Since beginning her career in education, Emily has found a more focused interest in confronting privilege and power in her classroom, and using education as a political act. Through the exploration of her own white privilege on her own and with her colleagues, Emily has been working to develop science curriculum with a focus on social justice. She presented her curriculum at four national conferences in 2017: National Science Teachers Association, National Association for Multicultural Education, Free Minds Free People, and National Council for the Social Studies. As she continues on in her career, Emily hopes to learn more about how to work with her students to confront and resist white supremacy in the current educational system.

In addition to being a Knowles Fellow, Emily was a Teach Plus Rhode Island Teaching Policy Fellow in 2017. 

Hobbies

When she isn’t teaching, Emily enjoys traveling, rock climbing, running, reading and cooking.

Academic Background

• Brown University (Master of Arts in Teaching, Secondary Science – Biology)
• Wesleyan University (Bachelor of Arts in Neuroscience and Behavior, and Psychology)