Colleen Simon

2025 Yale and Slavery Teachers Institute Cohort Member

Schechter is a Jewish community day school located in West Hartford that offers an exceptional, forward-thinking, student-centered education from early childhood through eighth grade. I teach humanities for grades 7 and 8. Our focus is American history. In the 8th grade, the students focus on US history told from different perspectives. When we study the Pequot War and the Treaty of Hartford, the students research the question “What happened to the Pequots?” In their research, the students discovered that the ship Desire carried enslaved Pequots to Providencia, where they were traded for enslaved Africans. The Desire landed in Boston bringing the first enslaved people to arrive in New England. Our next unit jumps forward 150 years. My goal is to revise the unit and spend more time on enslaved life in New England and Connecticut, specifically during the colonial period.