Margaret’s story

Margaret Bertoni

When Margaret signed up for the first ever GTL Wales, she would never have guessed that she would get to develop her own STEM curriculum and work with students from age 7-18.

"From teaching a wide variety of age groups and developing my own curriculum to learning how to navigate in a new country and city, my experiences have helped me grow in many ways.”

Margaret was placed at Ysgol Gyfun Bro Morgannwg in the first cohort of the Global Teaching Labs in Wales programme. Margaret was paired with a teacher mentor in the science department, Catrin Walters. In preparation for her journey to Wales, Margaret developed a variety of STEM talks and workshops including Women in STEM, Introduction to Heat Transfer, and Introduction to the Design Process. Over the course of three weeks, Margaret worked with nine different age groups at Bro Morganwwg and visited two additional schools.

Outside of school Margaret enjoyed learning about education in Wales, from meeting the Minister of Education and learning about curriculum reform to visiting the science education centre Techniquest and further education colleges. She enjoyed exploring the Cardiff area on foot and visiting the many castles of Wales.

Take some time to reflect. What were your successes while you were abroad?

GTL helped Margaret broaden her perspective not only on education, but also more generally on what it is like to live and work in another region of the world. It has encouraged her to be more open to international opportunities beyond graduation from MIT.

Click here to read MIT’s blog post about Margaret Bertoni’s experiences at Ysgol Gyfun Bro Morgannwg: http://misti.mit.edu/meche-student-margaret-bertoni-teaches-stem-classes-barry-wales