Profile: Eve Nora Litt

When asked about her decision to teach in Philadelphia, Eve Nora Litt says, "I was really interested in urban education. I just feel that bypassing urban education is neglect — societal neglect — and GSE, especially the Teacher Education program, has a strong focus on urban education."

Eve, who just completed the Teacher Education master's program and is now a TESOL master's student, says that getting two degrees was always a part of the plan. As she explains, "In Pennsylvania, to be certified as a TESOL instructor for K through 12, you have to be a certified elementary school teacher. Otherwise, you are only certified to work with 9-12."

Penn GSE's Teacher Education program (TEP) went far beyond Eve's expectations: "My program was set up as a cohort. We were really tight: we had all of our classes together and we started at the same time. Our student teaching progressed at the same pace."

For Eve, "student teaching was the best part of this experience." She explains that, since TEP students are in the classroom all year, "we really had the opportunity to implement the methods we were learning the very next day in the classroom. Seeing the child development theories form in front of me just made them so much more meaningful."

Eve student taught at two schools, Wilson Elementary in West Philly and Independence Charter in Center City. Because Wilson, a small school, had lost funding for a second-grade teacher, the second grade was split into two, with higher-achieving second-graders joining the third-graders and the lower-achieving students, the first graders. Placed in the first-second grade split, Eve says, "it was a really great place to observe differentiated teaching styles... keeping one side of the class busy with individual work while instructing the other side of the class."

At Independence Charter, Eve took on more teaching roles in her fifth-grade class. Recalling a mini lesson she taught on writing thank-you notes, Eve recounts how one student inspired her with his creativity by writing a thank-you note to the Earth. For Eve, these experiences exemplify her desire to continue teaching in Philadelphia.

Eve's desire to teach non-native speakers in Philly has also inspired her to want to travel aboard: "I'm very interested in teaching abroad for the purpose of gaining perspective on what it's like to be in a culture shock and what it's like to be in a country where you don't speak the language, so that I can broaden my perspective when coming back here in Philadelphia and working with immigrant speakers."

This year, Eve is a research assistant, working with Penn undergraduates who volunteer as mentors for kids in Southwest Philly. "Because they're all over the city, programs like the mentorship program or Penn GSE internships make you realize that you shouldn't go by street numbers and by how many boarded-up windows are on a block. Each block has character and you just need to get to know Philly yourself."

"I love Philadelphia," she continues. "It's so accessible. It's a walking city. It's not as overwhelming as some of the larger cities, but it's also not as centralized. I mean, there's Center City, but at the same time, there are still really important pockets spread throughout all directions of the city that make it interesting."