TEACHING PORTFOLIO
Thank you for visiting my teaching website!
I'm a former artist and theater professional with an MSEd in Childhood Special Education from Hunter College. I completed my student teaching in the NYC public schools, and for the last five years, I’ve taught enrichment classes in science, visual art, and art history to public, charter, and private-school students in New York City.
I’m excited to start a new chapter with a full-time teaching job in Fall 2021!
"Leontine comes to the classroom prepared to teach and mentor the students. She sets clear expectations for students’ behavior and holds the children accountable to those expectations throughout the lesson.
Leontine also has a strong knowledge background of special needs students. She was able to pick up on who were the special needs students the first day she arrived and has been able to provide them with developmentally appropriate assistance during her time in this classroom.
Leontine is able to really get to the heart of the matter when counseling students who need it, posing questions that allow students to think through their motivations. She has been very patient and kind with students that display consistent issues, day in and day out.”
--Justin Chao, cooperating teacher, PS 183M.
Science
Beginning in 2019, I co-created and taught "The Planet We Live On," an interdisciplinary class at Different Directions Community Center in Manhattan. We combined lessons on ecology and human impact on the environment with conversations about local government and youth activism. We taught two weekly classes - one for ages 9-11 and one for ages 12-14.
In 2019-20, our older students created a campaign to oppose bottled water sales in NYC. They took this photo and posted it on social media to thank Mayor de Blasio for banning plastic bottle sales on city property.
Social Studies
When I was asked to create a social studies class for 12-14 year olds at Different Directions, I took advantage of my background in the arts to create a class that uses art and artifacts to tell the story of world history. Our fall term explored the rise of “civilization” (a loaded word), our winter term traced the spread of religion, and our spring term looked at the effects of colonialism in Africa, Europe and the New World.
This class went fully remote in Fall 2020. In this picture, a student shares the symbol she designed to represent order and chaos as part of our Ancient Egypt unit. She drew a match and a flame.
Visual Art
I created a visual art program for Queens Music Academy when they expanded their offerings to include summer camp and vacation mini-camps. I also taught afterschool art classes there and did art activities with families at community events.
Since March 2020, I’ve been teaching group and private art lessons via zoom.
Reading
As a student teacher at PS 166Q and PS 183M, I taught reading to 2nd graders in an ICT setting and 4th-5th graders in a 12:1 self-contained classroom.
Math
As a student teacher, I wrote lesson plans and taught 2nd grade math at PS 166Q and PS 183M.