| Rabi always knew she wanted to be a scientist, but it | | | | said, 'Hey, that hill is from where the glacier melted, |
| wasn't until she borrowed her college roommate's | | | | right?' Then we spent the underground part of our ride |
| education textbooks and read them cover-to-cover | | | | talking about how much farther under we'd be if the |
| that she realized she wanted to be a teacher. After | | | | ice were still up there." |
| getting her Bachelor's Degree in Astronomy and | | | | Rabi made the decision recently to return to school |
| Cognitive Science from Swarthmore College, she used | | | | and earn her PhD. "I am on an unpaid leave of |
| the resources of the New York City Teaching Fellows | | | | absence from my position as a high school earth |
| Program to earn her Master's degree in Science | | | | science teacher. I absolutely love teaching, but I needed |
| Education from Pace University. She currently holds a | | | | to understand more about why and how to improve |
| New York State Permanent Certificate to teach Earth | | | | science education on a scale beyond my own |
| Science and General Science in secondary schools | | | | classroom. I do intend to go back to teaching soon, |
| (grades 7 - 12). | | | | though," She says assuredly. "Right now I'm a full-time |
| "I love everything about being in a classroom with a | | | | doctoral student, so I take three or four classes each |
| bunch of kids," she says. "It's kind of like being on stage | | | | semester, and I also work part-time doing research at |
| -- you have a plan, and you're a performer -- but it's | | | | Teachers College. The project I'm working on now is a |
| also intimate and spontaneous. I love the process of | | | | new science and nutrition curriculum that is being used |
| getting to know my students, coming to admire and | | | | in middle schools around the city. I work with a number |
| appreciate them, and watching them start to embrace | | | | of different teachers to help them implement the |
| science as something enjoyable, useful, and even | | | | curriculum, and to evaluate how it's being used in the |
| empowering. It's the most flat-out fun I've ever had, on | | | | classroom. I work with eight to ten classes at a time, |
| a day-to-day basis, at any job ever in my life." | | | | and visit each class a few times a week. While I'm |
| But it's not just the classroom experience that Rabi | | | | there, I sometimes guest-teach or team-teach a |
| loves. "I also love a lot of the behind-the-scenes work | | | | lesson, or I observe the lesson and take field notes. I |
| that goes into education," she gushes. "Designing a | | | | meet with each teacher to debrief and help plan |
| curriculum and a set of good assessments is one of | | | | pacing or modifications for upcoming lessons. I also |
| my favorite parts. I like mapping everything out and | | | | arrange and run field trips for the students, as well as |
| drawing the connections between the different things | | | | professional development for the teachers learning to |
| we are doing, testing out possible new experiments or | | | | use the curriculum." |
| design projects, and doing background reading to get a | | | | When asked what advice she'd give to a prospective |
| better sense of the theory underlying my practice." | | | | teacher, she says, "Studying education can be very |
| She knew she'd chosen the right career as a scientist | | | | different from practicing education. I recommend doing |
| the first time one of her students made a pun about | | | | both! But it helps to be able to devote yourself to one |
| convection. "When the rest of the class started | | | | at a time for at least a little while. I'm getting so much |
| laughing, I was sure there was no other way I'd rather | | | | more out of being a student now than I did when I was |
| be doing science." But she finds evidence of her | | | | teaching and getting my master's degree at the same |
| success every day in the classroom every time she | | | | time. Of course, my experience as a teacher makes |
| grades her students' work. "I know grading is often | | | | all my research and coursework much more |
| portrayed as an onerous part of teaching, but I find it | | | | meaningful to me now, on both an intellectual and an |
| really rewarding. Done right, assessment makes it clear | | | | emotional level." |
| how the students have taken what they're learning | | | | Rabi is looking forward to returning to teaching soon. |
| and integrated it into their understanding of the world at | | | | "On a more philosophical level, science education as a |
| large. Seeing that is great. It happens spontaneously, | | | | civil right is important to me, so I like having the support |
| too, of course. One time I was on the F train (a | | | | and time to incorporate that into my work. Taking the |
| subway line in NYC that is elevated through most of | | | | time now to earn my doctorate degree in a more |
| Brooklyn) with some of my students, and as we | | | | academic setting-although it's weird that there is such |
| approached the spot where the land starts to slope up | | | | a thing as a more academic setting than a high |
| and the train points its nose down to head into a tunnel, | | | | school-will allow me to do just that. |
| one of them turned from looking out the window and | | | | |