November 24, 2025

By Basil Tutza

The 2:00 p.m. rush in the Science Leadership Academy Middle School, or SLA-MS, sends dozens of kids skirting across the upper floor, chattering excitedly. Near the staircase, a teacher gathers a group for sports. A line forms outside of the double doors which lead back into the classrooms, registering the enthusiastic middle schoolers for their chosen “mini-courses.” 

The courses, running about an hour each, aren’t your conventional classroom fare: they range from crochet to Dungeons and Dragons, herding the school’s 5th through 8th graders into a more casual learning environment to de-stress and engage with a topic they may be passionate about. Several courses are also, most importantly, led by students in Drexel’s DragonsTeach program.  

The School of Education’s DragonsTeach program allows non-education majors to pursue a teaching certification. Students use their elective credits to take education courses within their preferred subjects—math, English, or science—and participate in a Fall/Winter student-teaching co-op with one of the School of Education’s partner schools, SLA-MS. Thanks to the wide availability of this program, each member of the SLA-MS DragonsTeach cohort is a different major, with incredibly diverse career aspirations, teaching styles, and motivations—and their classrooms provide a microcosm of those variances.  

Room 213, for instance, hosts the mini-course “Philly Dance,” led by third year human development and counseling major Grace Angyelof. Students find their seats, take attendance, and focus their attention on Angyelof’s presentation on the Philly-borne Umfundalai.   

“I’ve always been interested in dance,” says Angyelof. “I danced at Drexel.” This informs the way she teaches the students about the week’s dance—she explains the intricacies of the style as someone who is learning it, but shares examples performed by experts. Though her learning environment is relatively traditional, with a dedicated lecture and slideshow, she isn’t overly formal; instead, she keeps her teaching grounded in her students’ reactions to the content, remaining responsive to their interests.  

This student-centered approach reflects in her topic just as much as her passion for dance. “When I first pitched my idea for the course,” she explains, “I went with ‘Dance on the East Coast,’ but our site supervisor Andrea guided me specifically to focus on Philly. These kids are from Philly. They all live currently in Philly. So why not? There’s so much rich cultural background here that these kids just don’t know about—so I want to show them as much as possible that this art does tie into their lives.” 

Angyelof has the most conventional teaching journey of the DragonsTeach group, entering the program with a long-running passion for middle school education. “It’s always been a goal of mine to become a teacher. My end goal is middle school guidance counselor; so, this opportunity to teach with the middle years cert was the perfect fit for me.” A survey of her class—the culture-oriented structure, the gentle physical engagement she deploys, the influence she grants her students—conveys that storied enthusiasm precisely. “I already, after just three weeks, have a group of kids who hug me every day, who give me nicknames,” Angyelof recounts. “Seeing that community, being a friendly face and an adult they can trust, is really important.” 

The complete opposite of Angyelof’s steady, conventional classroom is just across the hall, in Room 214. While the mini-course is labelled, “Music Through the Decades,” its teacher, fifth year Psychology major Ella Stalowir, redefines it as a “space for students’ voices.” 

“Each week,” Stalowir explains, “they give me three song suggestions that they connect or relate to, and I put them into a presentation for us to discuss.” 

The first of these songs is, unexpectedly, Limp Bizkit’s “Rollin’ (Air Raid Vehicle),” followed immediately by “Stricken” by Slipknot. Stalowir’s students don’t seem too thrown by the class’s loud start; they speak just as animatedly as they did during attendance, during which they played “Two Truths and a Lie” with high-volume enthusiasm.  

Stalowir begins handing out song recommendation sheets—and while they’re optional, Stalowir has made it her mission for the students to feel that the space is theirs. “They can be rowdy at times, but they’re all really interested in music and love to share. They sing; they dance. They bash each other’s songs, but, of course, I try to create a very respectful and mindful space where they have an outlet that isn’t just writing or speaking.” That central mindfulness also ties into Stalowir’s overall class environment and teaching style. “I’m measuring the students’ moods from the beginning to end of the period—they fill out a survey during each time. I’m trying to gauge the effect of the music, even unconventional choices, on their mood.”  

Interestingly, Stalowir didn’t enter university with any sort of teaching-related aspirations. “I came in with an environmental science major, hoping to become a veterinarian,” she describes. “After a lot of self-reflection, I switched to psychology—I liked observing people, making connections, seeing patterns.” Her interest in education naturally followed. “I took a lot of courses on youth developmental and child psychology, so teaching was kind of the best of both worlds.” 

Room 215’s Rymirah Garfield, a fourth year global studies major, had a similar late awakening to education—she even cites some of the same coursework as Stalowir, DragonsTeach’s ESTM 201. “You’re given a brief introduction to education,” Garfield summarizes, “then teach two lessons at a middle school; and that’s where I fell in love with teaching. It’s been my passion ever since.” 

Garfield’s mini-course, simply, “Loops and Lyrics” has the quietest environment of the three—kids work in three rough groups, comprised of experienced crocheters, early solo learners, and a small group receiving step-by-step guidance from Garfield. She underscores the importance of discovering “how to talk to the students—not literally like they’re adults, but firm enough while still being playful.” She laughs. “I will not say six-seven, though,” referring to the latest trend followed by the kids. Her voice is soft as she guides them through the basic loops, creating chains.  

“I started crocheting when I was in the fourth grade;” Garfield says about her chosen topic, “so around the same time as the kids I’m teaching. I thought it would be a good way to wind down from the day for them.” Despite how calm her classroom seems from an outside perspective, however, Garfield highlights how the SLA-MS students challenged these intentions. “When I started, I had expectations that were way, way too high, and I think learning to pivot from that has been really important. The kids really want the end result of ‘making something,’ while I’m trying to teach the foundations, which can impact how calming it is for them; so, it’s the teacher’s job to meet them where they’re at.” 

Stalowir agrees. “Schooling has changed so much throughout the years,” she adds, “given COVID and all of the other societal and global changes we’ve had since I was a middle schooler. With this position at SLA-MS, I’ve had a lot of reflective moments on the ways I can do better in accommodating that.” 

That’s just the start of the cohort’s similarities: despite the differences in their backgrounds and teaching styles, they’re united by the love of their students and an appreciation for the program. “I couldn’t imagine being on co-op anywhere else—or with anyone else,” says Angyelof. “The staff have been super welcoming. It’s been an amazing experience, and we’re only on our third week.” 

All three are also unified by their AmeriCorps sponsorship, which offers a salary (and support) for an often-unpaid student teaching experience. “When I was contacted by the program to apply, it felt like a no-brainer; because I’d be doing this anyway, just unpaid,” Stalowir describes. “While I admit that I had very little knowledge of AmeriCorps prior to the program, orientation taught me so much about the organization and its longstanding history with teaching in our country. It’s all about making a change; helping me to help kids. I’m proud to have this opportunity.” Angyelof, whose major’s co-op cycle does not traditionally align with DragonsTeach, cannot stress her enthusiasm to work with AmeriCorps enough: “I knew immediately that this was something I wanted to be a part of. I had to fight to get into this program and get the co-op to align with my major—and it was, I think, one of the greatest choices I could have ever made for myself.” 

Reflecting on the program as a whole, the students agreed that DragonsTeach had more than just an experiential role for them: it “applies both inside and outside the classroom,” according to Garfield. Garfield has learned to “come in with an open mind and an open heart.” Stalowir expands this further. “The person I was before this program is completely different to who I am now, and that fully goes along with being a teacher,” she says. “The School of Ed and Drexel’s model of experiential education just work perfectly together. I don’t have years and years of teaching experience, but I feel like week by week, year by year that I’ve been in the Drexel program, I’m just building up that confidence and building up my own repertoire of knowledge.” Stalowir closes off her thoughts with a very simple sentiment: “That’s what I mean when I say that DragonsTeach was one of the best choices I’ve ever made: it’s making me a better person.”