Julie Jongmi Lee


Julie Lee works as a science teacher at Brooklyn International High School, a high school for students who have been in the country for less than four years.  There are mixed student populations with varying English levels, age groups and nationalities.  She enjoys working in this school because she gets to work with students from all over the world, with whom she can share many similar experiences of moving to a new country and learning a new language.

Julie came to United States when she was seven years old.  She grew up in New York City and attended public schools in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Bronx.  After graduating from Wesleyan University with a B.A. in Religion, she started teaching as a fourth grade teacher.  This was the most challenging experience for her but afterwards realized she needed to be trained before returning to the classroom.  After doing science research for four years, she realized she wanted to become a science teacher and went to get her masters at Teachers Collage at Columbia University.

The next challenge took her off to teach English in Japan as an assistant English teacher in a Junior High School in Sumoto, a small town in Kumamoto, Japan.  After a year in Japan, she was excited to return to NYC to teach in the public school system.  She started off with teaching sixth grade and quickly realized that she loved teaching older students and went off to teach at BIHS, where she was able to combine her ESL experience with science education.  She loves teaching and learning from her diverse student body.

As a science teacher, her challenge is to integrate science content, ESL techniques and computer technology into her everyday classroom activities.  In BIHS, she teaches on the Law and Theory team, concentrating mostly on chemistry, evolution and environmental science.  By Participating in the 1999 Commuter Institute, she is able to obtain resources with which she can incorporate into her classroom.

1999 Commuter Institute

Field Trip Activities:

Hudson River and Wetlands: Peekskill NY and Constitution Marsh

Central Park
 

Projects:

Soil Ameoba Isolation- Jim Bacchi

Cellulose Digestion- Mary Langan

Antimicrobial effects of heavy metals- Julie Lee

Winogradsky column
 

Living Environment Curriculum:

Biodiversity Unit