The Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute, a partnership between Yale University and New Haven Public Schools, aims to strengthen teaching and learning in the Greater New Haven area’s public schools. Over a five-month program, K-12 teachers attend seminars led by Yale faculty, develop new teaching strategies, and forge collegial bonds with Yale faculty and other teachers. Read more about the institute.
For Matthew Schaffer, an eighth-grade history teacher at the Engineering & Science University Magnet School in West Haven, the Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute offers him the experience that led him to teaching in the first place.
“Getting to live the life of the mind a little bit — you know, read a text, discuss it — that’s the kind of thing that I’ve always loved about being a student and learning,” he said. “So it’s nice that I can apply that very directly to what I do.”
Schaffer first arrived in New Haven to pursue a master’s in history at Yale; he began teaching in New Haven public schools during the 2020-21 school year. When he learned about the institute, the model of intensive seminars and focused development of curriculum units felt like a natural fit.
Through these seminars, he said, “we become such experts in the content, it makes it a lot easier to be flexible, to change around a lesson plan, or to add something new. Being able to develop a unit like this allows for a much richer curriculum.”
This spring, he was enrolled in “The Science of Rivers,” a seminar on the hydrology, structure, and ecology of rivers with Peter Raymond, the Oastler Professor in Ecosystem Ecology at the Yale School of the Environment.
“I know that I’ve learned a lot from this year’s seminar, and I’m excited to kind of incorporate it more,” he said. Most exciting for him is that he didn’t need to wait until his curriculum is done — he submitted the unit at the end of July and will put it into practice in the coming year — but found ways to bring his new knowledge into the classroom right away this spring.
“Our students were beginning to study the Civil War, and [in the seminar] we’ve been looking at the human connection between rivers. I’ve been thinking about what has made rivers such a significant part of American history,” he said. “So, as I’m preparing to teach about the Vicksburg campaign, or how the North found victory over the South, I’m considering how rivers play a part in that.”
This was the third seminar he’s taken with the Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute. He’s also taken two seminars during the Yale National Initiative, held each summer on Yale’s campus for teachers from around the country.
While seminars he’s taken may not be directly tied to history — the topics have included poetry and geology — the opportunity to learn in a cross-disciplinary way has enriched his approach to teaching.
A similar enrichment comes from the resources the teachers can access at Yale, from museum collections to the library stacks. “I love the physical experience of going into the stacks and finding the book on my topic, and then finding, you know, eight more right next to it,” he said. “It’s nice to know that I’m using this excellent institution, and its resources, and its faculty to benefit what I’m doing here locally, every day.”
Some of the knowledge he’s gleaned from seminars has taught him more about the city he lives in, too. “When we did our geology seminar, we did a local tour of spots of geological interest, and now I find myself pointing out, ‘You know, look at East Rock, it’s volcanic trap rock.’”
