At Metropolitan Learning Center (MLC) in Bloomfield, an interdistrict desegregation magnet school serving students in the Hartford area, teacher Thomas Brodnitzki has helped students dramatically improve their writing through social studies. Describing himself more as a "facilitator of student learning" than a teacher, Brodnitzki created a hands-on, project-based AP Human Geography class at MLC. Several student projects in this class were of such high quality that he presented them at a Yale University teaching conference. Brodnitzki has taught almost every social studies class offered at the school since it opened in 2001, and was instrumental in creating the high school social studies curriculum. For the past four years, the school's writing scores on the Connecticut Academic Performance Test (CAPT) have been among the highest in the state, and he has coached second- and third-place-winning teams in the statewide Geography Challenge. Coordinator of the National Geographic Society's "My Wonderful World" campaign, Brodnitzki was among an elite group selected to participate in the National Geographic Society Summer Teacher Institute in Washington, D.C. He has inspired several students to pursue careers in social studies teaching.
1999 University of Montana - Missoula, B.A.
