My name is Lena DiBartolomeo and I am entering my ninth year of teaching 8th Grade Social Studies. I want to welcome you to the 2022-2023 school year and am looking forward to having your child in my class. I am originally from Columbus, Ohio and I graduated from Northern Arizona University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Secondary Education-Social Studies and History as well as with a minor in Political Science in 2014 and I earned my Master's in Education from Northern Arizona University in the Fall of 2019. This will be my sixth year teaching 8th grade Social Studies at Sossaman Middle School.
My philosophy as a teacher is that it is my job to help students begin to develop their own ideas and thoughts and be able to articulate those ideas in a respectful manner. I believe it is my job to provide a safe environment for students to learn and share their ideas to the best of their ability. I believe that each child learns a different way and students will be introduced to different ways of learning, whether it is through listening and analyzing music, critically reading a primary source document, watching a documentary and being able to answer questions based on what they watched, simulations of historical events or learning how to take notes during a PowerPoint Presentation.
My goal is to teach history in a way that students can relate to and to try and illustrate how history is relevant to their lives.
There are three main ways for students to be successful in my class:
- Attendance: if the student is not here, they are missing valuable information that is only provided in the classroom, whether it’s an in-depth class discussion or activity.
- Effort: if the student puts in the work, they will be successful
- Participation: this is as simple as just being aware during a lecture and taking notes, keeping up with their Interactive Notebook, to asking questions and participating in daily class activities
If you have any questions please email at lena.dibartolomeo@husd.org. If you want to talk to me in person, just let me know in the email and leave a phone number and I will call you back as soon as I can. I look forward to having a great year here at Sossaman Middle School.
