Kellie Allen

Background

About Kellie Allen

My name is Kellie Allen and I am a second year student at Teachers College, Columbia University. I am pursuing a Master's degree in Elementary Inclusive Education with a Dual Certification in Childhood Education for grades 1-6 and Teaching Students with Disabilities for grades 1-6. I graduated from Bates College in 2021 with a Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience, a Bachelor of Arts in Dance, and a concentration in Philosophy and Psychology. My undergraduate education included courses in neuroscience, chemistry, biology, psychology, ethics, gender studies, history, Spanish, and the performing arts. I completed a year-long senior thesis in Neuroscience, a lab research-based project centered around addiction entitled "Impacts of Differential Dietary Experience on Compulsive Food-Seeking Behavior". After graduating from Bates, I spent two years working as an English Language Assistant at a secondary school in Madrid, Spain. In my free time, I taught conversational English classes to small groups of adults at Intermediate and Advanced levels. Currently, I am working as a Resident at Castle Bridge, a progressive, inclusive, dual-language school in Washington Heights. In this role, I collaborate with co-teachers, plan lessons, create learning materials, manage behavior, and provide individual, small group, and whole-class instruction in both English and Spanish. I work with students of a wide range of abilities as well as racial, linguistic, and cultural backgrounds. My initiative, warmth, and communication skills have made me successful in this role and have allowed me to form strong relationships with my students and co-teachers. I was drawn to Teachers College due to its commitment to access, equity, and social justice. I want to become a teacher who makes literacy, math, science, and social studies accessible to all students regardless of the barriers that they may face. I want to foster critical thinking in my classrooms so that my students can identify biases, engage in accountable talk, and learn how to develop their own informed opinions. I want to make learning meaningful to students by connecting the curriculum to students' cultures and real-life experiences, and I want to make my instruction authentic, engaging, and fun so that my students fall in love with learning. This fall, I hope to begin my career as a lead teacher in the New York City public school system. I am excited and honored to do this work, and I hope that my empathetic and holistic approach to education will help to level the playing field for the next generation of learners.