UMass Lowell History Department Alum Spotlight

Introducing Matthew Peltier ('18) ...

Since earning his B.A. in History, Matthew has been occupied teaching middle- and high-school students in some of the local school systems.

While a graduate student in UMass Lowell’s Education program (2018-19), he completed his student teaching at Tyngsboro High School, where he was able to stay on as a per diem substitute teacher and later as a long-term substitute. He taught ninth- and 10th-grade "U.S. History" through the end of that school year. 

In fall 2019, he taught 10th-grade "World History" at Lexington High School. After that temporary position ended that December, he served as a per diem substitute teacher mostly in the Lexington middle and high schools. 

In fall 2020, he began working as a special education instructional assistant at Burlington Middle School, which he found very rewarding. As this past school year progressed, he began to teach temporarily eighth-grade English Language Arts classes, which was an interesting and exciting opportunity for him to expand beyond teaching history. Among the books he and his students read and discussed was "Fahrenheit 451."