Thanks for visiting! This is a place to find my writing, both education pieces and personal essays. I teach history and do academic administration at an independent school just north of Los Angeles. I’ve also written two books about history teaching, Creating Citizens (Routledge, 2018) and Making History Mine (Stenhouse, 2009), and write regularly for MiddleWeb’s Future of History blog. In my free time, I like to run, cook, play piano, listen to Broadway musicals, search for good bakeries and spend time with my husband and two sons. I’ve also taught English and love young adult fiction. @sarahjcooper01
“Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI” by Ethan Mollick, MiddleWeb
As a writer, eighth grade history teacher and school administrator, I’m as curious as anyone about what will happen when the robots eventually take over (more on that later). But after reading Ethan Mollick’s Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI, I’m newly optimistic about the possibilities of AI in education – and trying to live more like … Continue reading
“Yerba Buena” by Nina LaCour, Bookclique
While reading Nina LaCour’s Yerba Buena on a drowsy Los Angeles winter afternoon, I turned the pages in a rush. I wanted to experience what would happen to main characters Emilie and Sara: first as teenagers in their own separate tales of trauma, then as adults eventually finding and re-finding each other in this coming-of-age romance. At the same time, the book’s sensory beauty made me want to notice… Continue reading
“5 Fun, Ethical Uses of AI I’ve Shared with Students,” MiddleWeb
Earlier this school year, I laughed at myself while making copies in the faculty room. For an assignment that would end up being a one-page letter to a politician, I had created a 12-page directions packet. 12 pages! Admittedly, I tend to over-scaffold… Continue reading
“4 Educators Share Their Favorite Reading Lessons,” Education Week
The most effective reading lesson I’ve taught was one I didn’t initially know I was teaching. For the past decade in my 8th grade U.S. history and civics courses, students have brought in a current events article approximately once a week. They can choose from a wide variety of articles—just not those solely focused on… Continue reading
“The Heart-Centered Teacher” by Regie Routman, MiddleWeb
To the title of this new book by Regie Routman, I would add a couple of other aspirational hyphenated adjectives: soul-lifting and life-affirming. The Heart-Centered Teacher: Restoring Hope, Joy, and Possibility in Uncertain Times lives up to its promise of renewal. It strives to be a mosaic of sorts: a combination of sometimes searing, sometimes poignant personal stories with on-the-ground insights from decades of experience. Routman believes that we are most fully ourselves when… Continue reading
“Throwback” by Maurene Goo, Bookclique
Back to the Future may be a much-loved movie and a Broadway musical, but it’s also the time-traveling inspiration for Maurene Goo’s Throwback, a deliciously smart YA novel. Samantha Kang is a Korean-American teenager who chafes against her mother’s desire to fit into all the places Sam couldn’t care less about. Throwback starts with a family country club interview that Sam nearly tanks with her questions, driving her mother, Priscilla, bananas. Sam finds refuge… Continue reading
“Social Studies Teachers May Have Some Difficult Choices to Make. These Ideas Could Help,” Education Week
Until recently, I asked students in my 8th grade U.S. history and civics classes to print out and annotate a current events article each week. They would bring in their article and discuss briefly with a partner “enough to retell the story to someone else” on the same days… Continue reading
“A Play for the End of the World” by Jai Chakrabarti, Bookclique
Jai Chakrabarti’s first novel, A Play for the End of the World, has lived in me since I read it three months ago. With the Holocaust as backdrop, Chakrabarti traces the story of two survivors of the Warsaw Ghetto: Yet 30 years later the past returns… Continue reading
“8th Grade Insights Into ChatGPT and the Future,” MiddleWeb
By this point – nearly two months in – the education community is overflowing with creativity about how to use ChatGPT’s disruptive technology in the K-12 classroom. Like so many teachers, I’ve felt both excitement and unease… Continue reading
“Find Your Person,” Education Week
As a teacher and administrator, helping new teachers is one of the best parts of my job. Here are two things I always end up saying at some point… Continue reading