Meghan White is the newest addition to Townsend Harris High School’s humanities department.
Ms. White currently teaches four AP World History classes and one Writing Process class. She remarks, “The students have been super great. I feel pretty happy so far and my SmartBoard works, so that’s a plus.”
Assistant Principal of Humanities Rafal Olechowski said, “[Ms. White] has the well being of students at the center of her classroom practice” and was impressed with how highly her former students thought of her.
English Teacher Jessica Stillman, who teaches an AP World History class and Writing Process class with her, states, “Ms. White is very easy to work with. She is knowledgeable in AP World, which is helpful since I’m still learning it as an English teacher. She is upbeat, personable, and has a nice rapport with the students. I think she is going to fit in well with THHS students.”
She previously taught freshmen and sophomores at Rocky Point and North Shore, and this is her first time teaching at a New York City public school. She remarks, “I love the music that plays in between classes, and I was shocked and excited at the same time to hear it. I’ve also noticed that my classes are a bit bigger here than in Long Island.”
Regarding her goals in the classroom, she hopes that students will trust her. She explains, “Since I am teaching freshmen and it is their first AP class, I really need them to trust me and not be afraid to ask questions; they shouldn’t just cry silently and suffer.”
Freshman Katie Hsu is in Ms. White’s AP World History class, and said, “[Ms. White] makes the lessons interesting by connecting our personal life into our lesson. She asks about our own timeline and uses that to explain how time affects the real life view of a society.”
Freshman Joohee Choi adds, “She’s really nice and explains everything well. I’m trying to become more interested in social studies, and it helps that she always shows videos to make the class more interesting.”
Ms. White received her undergraduate degree at SUNY Oneonta and her graduate degree at Dowling College in Long Island. She became interested in social studies because of her love of anthropology and archaeology. Her college classes required that she perform archaeological digs in Upstate New York and present her findings to nearby schools, where she mostly found arrowheads and projectile points that were over eight thousand years old from nomadic settlements. During one of her digs, she and her team visited a local school to explain their findings. She describes, “When I got to the school to teach the children about our findings, I knew that this was what I was meant to do.”
Ms. White concludes, “the students are great and the faculty is nice, and I’m excited to see how this year will go.”
