By: Chelsea Rahiman and Fariha Fawziah
Mr.Cohen is a Global History teacher who makes our learning experience fun. We interviewed Mr.Cohen to learn more about his dynamic way of teaching and his life as a teacher.
What was your high school experience like? What high school did you attend?
I attended Spring Valley High School in Rockland County, New York. If you’re familiar with the Palisades Center, maybe not even 10 minutes away from there. We had two high schools. There was a lot of teachers I looked up to. I always said to myself that if I became a teacher, I was going to model myself after some of them, because I had a tough time adjusting to high school. And during those years, those teachers did treat me well and I felt like I could trust them. So I always felt if I could do that for somebody else, that would be worth more than whatever money I might be earning. That would always be the nice part of my job.
How do you think your high school experience differed from the one we have?
I think a lot was expected of us when I was in school because we didn’t access to information as easily as you guys do today. So the work that we were given involved a lot more outside work on our part. For example, actually going to the library and having to look through books. You know what those are, right? We didn’t have Google, we didn’t have Siri, and we didn’t always have people we could ask questions of. We had to go find the answers for ourselves. I always felt like that was one of the better experiences, because it really taught us to be more self-sufficient and we felt we’d accomplished more when we turned things in.
How and why do you think MCSM is different from other high schools and specifically how do you think your class is different?
Manhattan Center specializes in Science and Mathematics. We are academically more rigorous than a lot of high school on those subjects. Additionally, we have efficient staff members who work very hard to foster new ideas and make students want to become part of our mission to create lifelong learners; that’s a really important part of what we do. That sets us apart from a lot of other schools.
As for my class being different, I like to be humorous and have fun with my classes as I teach. History can be a very boring subject if it’s just about facts, dates and events — basically pure memorization. Adding amusing elements to class makes the whole experience more fun. We end up having more lively discussions that are interesting to all of us.
What college did you go to?
I attended a State University college at Oneonta, so SUNY Oneonta. It’s a Native American name right in the middle of New York State. For Graduate school I attended Iona College and then Pace University.
Why did you choose to be a Global teacher?
I’m a history teacher, which includes global as well as US History. I’ve always had a passion for history. I like english too but I’ve always been passionate about history. It goes back to the 6th grade. When I was in the 6th grade, we studied early American history all year. At the end of the year, we took a 3-day trip to Washington D.C. during Memorial Day weekend. All of the things we had studied during the course of the year were now in my face. We were seeing the Declaration of Independence. We were seeing the Constitution, and I really gained a greater appreciation for history. After that I was hooked.
What advice would you give students?
To be as involved as you possibly can be. There are so many things you can make of high school. Obviously, your main focus is your academics but doing your extracurriculars like writing for Rampage or Robotics can be really wonderful. I know I really enjoyed some of the clubs I was in when I was in high school. You get to meet people who have the same interest as you from different grade levels; same thing with college. If you get involved in things outside of academics, you could make your experience a very incredible one.
“thecohenbomb. – Kamil”