Today at Brown

After three years of teaching second and third graders in a Washington, D.C., public school, Maureen Sigler says she finally realized how much she didn’t know about the art of teaching. Since then, she’s dedicated her work to teaching teachers how to teach.

Sigler, who joins Brown as a lecturer in education and director of social studies and history education for MAT students, graduated from Trinity College in 1999 with a B.A. in philosophy. She spent three years with Teach for America, then attended Harvard University and received a master’s in education administration, planning, and school policy in 2003. It was there that Sigler says she learned concrete teaching strategies and the theories and philosophies behind them — and most importantly, how to implement them in the classroom.

“My work is really about showing teachers how to develop a sustainable repertoire of skills and differentiate their instruction to meet the needs of every student,” she said. “The goal is to teach all children well.”

Following graduate school, Sigler worked for the New Teacher Project and Mercy College in New York City, where she developed a teacher education curriculum for the New York City Teaching Fellows. She designed graduate-level courses that focused on socio-cultural issues, education policy, and curriculum instruction. Sigler then returned to the classroom and taught in a D.C. public charter middle school for three years. While there, she developed a resident teacher program, which enabled new teachers to learn the craft of teaching while working closely with veteran teachers. She also served as a mentor teacher there. Sigler is currently working on a project that helps teachers enrich their instruction by using primary sources in secondary history classrooms.

As a visiting lecturer last year in the Department of Education, Sigler has already experienced “the joy” of teaching Brown students.

“They are not your typical bookworms,” she said. “Brown students really make connections to their lives and to the greater world. They are critical thinkers with great energy and passion for learning. It’s nice to see them not only intellectualize the material, but also put it into action.”