Amy Puebla is a 5th grade teacher at Pitkin Elementary School who has been teaching in East Hartford for 34 years. Her goal is to get her students to think deeply and critically. She recently took part in the Yale and Slavery Teachers Institute. After sharing the lessons she created in the fellowship and reporting back on students’ insightful responses, Yale selected Puebla’s class to film and highlight.
“She is a gifted teacher, she really is. She builds incredible relationships with her students, with her families. She knows those students inside and out, year after year after year,” said Pitkin Principal Bea Corrado. “She just has a way of being so in-tune to their needs and differentiating all of her instruction, whether it's writing, whether it's math, whether it's social studies, whatever it may be. Whatever that student needs, she works tirelessly to make sure that they have what they need.”
Puebla applied to the Yale fellowship and was selected to work with a variety of teachers last summer to write curriculum on New England and slavery. She then presented those lessons to her students throughout the school year, and her students provided responses.
After looking at responses from different teachers in the fellowship, Yale chose Puebla and her class to highlight. Representatives from Yale visited her classroom and took photos and videos to showcase the fellowship and her work specifically.
Corrado said, “Amy's class was selected for her expertise and the way that she supports her students, but also because of the critical thinking that our students have the capacity to do. And that was such a point of celebration to celebrate the capacity that our kids have to think critically, to analyze deeply and to really embrace their learning. Their engagement in that classroom from day to day is just exceptional.”
Learn more about Puebla in the Q&A below.
How long have you been in education and how long have you been at Pitkin School?
Puebla: Last Thursday was my 34th year anniversary in the district. So I've actually been in the district 34 years, I have been at Pitkin School for five years. The majority of my years have actually been in third grade. I've done a handful of fourth grade and now a handful of fifth grade, but I really love fifth.
If someone were to observe your fifth-grade classroom, what would they see?
Puebla: They would observe amazing students. They would observe students who are engaged in what they are doing because they are genuinely interested in the material and wanting to know more about what we're doing. Because they're finally learning to think very deeply about their learning in their own brain and how that works. That helps them in the process of overcoming certain fears that often get in the way. Like even recently, with presenting poetry, public speaking is a big fear, and it's working through that with them. They have learned so much and I'm just so proud of them.
How do you foster that learning environment?
Puebla: It's a lot of work. It's a lot of time. It's a lot of thinking. It's a lot of planning, and it's a lot of differentiation because every child is completely different. So, it's being able to look at that specific child in what I need to do and even sometimes how I need to approach them, how I need to talk to them. What I say to one student I might not necessarily say to another student.
34 years into your career, what is something that still excites you about coming to work every day?
Puebla: I know people probably won't believe this, but I really do mean this. I have never not wanted to come to work. It’s never happened to me. I love what I do and I know what I do makes a difference, and that matters.
How did you get involved with the Yale and Slavery Teachers Institute?
Puebla: It started with an email, and the email intrigued me because I love history, I love learning about history, and I love sharing that with my students. And it was basically a two-week, internship type of thing with Yale that took slavery in New England, how that impacted all of New England and Connecticut's role specifically. How to teach that hard history, because it is hard history, so how do you bring it down to a fifth grade level? There were teachers there from second grade all the way up through high school. So, you presented a lesson plan, and, throughout the two weeks of learning in field trips and immersing in this environment, you revised your lesson plan and then you spend the following year presenting it to the students. And it has been a journey, an amazing one.
How did your students respond to it?
Puebla: It was mind boggling to see them. Because, again, the whole point of my teaching is to have them think deeply about things, whether it's math, reading, writing, whatever it is: Go deeper. So for something like this, the looks on their faces, their responses, their thoughtful consideration, even those students who normally don't raise their hand or don't respond. Wow, I'm blown away by what they internalized from it all and how involved they wanted to be in learning more.
What do you love most about the work that you do?
Puebla: You know, it's interesting. The other day someone asked a question about, what is love? What truly is love? And I was like, “Wow, I don't know if I've ever been asked that question.” And I really thought about it that night, and I just kind of wrote freely about it, and the first line was the smile of a child, the inquiry of a child. They are so innocent and want to know. They want your guidance and they want your structure and they are what bring me to the table every day.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.