Published in ConnectED Newsletter - Volume 7 - Issue 3 - March 2024
Christine Fryer is an Adjunct Professor in the Secondary Social Studies Education program. She holds a B.A. in comparative political science with a minor in Spanish from Bates College, a J.D. from Rutgers Law School, and an M.S.Ed. in secondary social studies education from The City College of New York. She was part of Cohort V of the NYC Teaching Fellows.
From 2022 to 2006, Prof. Fryer worked as a law and social studies teacher and as Law Academy Coordinator at Louis D. Brandeis High School, where she taught US History and Global History to ninth through twelfth graders, as well as Criminal Law, Civil Law, Business Law, Constitutional Law, and Law and Literature. Then, from 2006 to 2007, she served as English Language Specialist at Yangkang Middle School in Seoul, South Korea, where she taught English to all 1,500 students at the school. She was also involved in curriculum development with an emphasis on differentiated learning lesson plans. Finally, she has worked as a social studies lead teacher and mentor at the High School for Law Advocacy and Community Justice since 2007. She teaches Global History/Geography I-IV, Law, AP Seminar, and AP World History to tenth through twelfth graders.
Prof. Fryer started working at CCNY in 2018. She says that teaching pre-service teachers has become the highlight of her pedagogical career. “My greatest joy educating pre-service teachers is witnessing the incredible growth of the candidates throughout the semester,” she explains. In her opinion, the methods course she co-teaches with Prof. Shira Epstein is very rigorous, intellectually demanding, and time consuming, and can be emotionally draining as candidates experience and grapple with the myriad of issues that occur in New York City public schools. She adds that “candidates go through phases of excitement, intellectual curiosity, fear, nervousness, empathy, exhaustion, and understanding. All candidates experience profound development, especially those who fully engage with the readings and assignments.” Moreover, Prof. Fryer argues that the experience of working with pre-service teachers has shown her how vitally important a rigorous, culturally relevant, skills-based social studies education is to the future of our country. “We are seeing in real time what the dumbing-down of the American electorate has brought,” she notes. “Every teacher who graduates from CCNY leaves as a change agent for democracy and a society rooted in equality and opportunity.”
Reflecting on her own growth as a teacher educator, Prof. Fryer asserts that she was immediately surprised at how much she learned through the creation and implementation of curriculum. “In the summer of 2018, working with Prof. Epstein, I wrote my first syllabus, and I have been modifying and tweaking it with the policy and pedagogical changes that have occurred within the field and within our society,” she observes. In addition, she mentions that she had never fully appreciated all that needed to occur in the high school social studies classroom to not only teach students history, but also the 21st century skills that should prepare students for their role as citizens in American society. “That first semester teaching, my mind kept reeling at all the history, skill sets, and citizenship development that should occur in an excellent social studies classroom,” she notes.
Last Updated: 03/15/2024 14:02