Sarah Cooper

Welcome!

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

“Take My Hand” by Dolen Perkins-Valdez, Bookclique

July 21, 2022July 25, 2022 Sarah Cooper

The epigraph of Dolen Perkins-Valdez’s Take My Hand sets a historical, poignant, and fiercely resilient tone: “Ben, make sure you play ‘Take My Hand, Precious Lord’ in the meeting tonight. Play it real pretty.” – Martin Luther King Jr.’s reported last words, April 4, 1968. The song’s steadfast gospel lyrics equally describe the book’s protagonist… Continue reading

“What We Carry” by Maya Shanbhag Lang, Bookclique

March 31, 2022June 13, 2022 Sarah Cooper

Lately I’ve been reading memoirs for reasons that remind me of a line from the uneven but wrenching musical Falsettos. It’s sung by the sometimes lovable, sometimes despicable protagonist: “I never wanted to love you/ I only wanted to see my face in yours.” But the best memoirs not only reflect back who you are. They also open worlds beyond your… Continue reading

“Advice for New Middle School Teachers from Four Veterans,” Education Week

January 23, 2022June 13, 2022 Sarah Cooper

After more than two decades of teaching middle school, my answer has simplified over time. Twenty years ago, I would have said that you need to keep students busy, change up activities multiple times a period, make sure they’re doing something. Ten years ago, I would have said that you need to see the infinite potential of middle schoolers… Continue reading

“Miracle Country” by Kendra Atleework, Bookclique

January 6, 2022June 13, 2022 Sarah Cooper

I first saw Kendra Atleework’s memoir Miracle Country in the Lone Pine visitor center, 200 miles north of Los Angeles, below Mount Whitney along Highway 395. The building rose out of the desert to meet us on our seventh summer trip to Mammoth Lakes in ten years. Each year, I had considered… Continue reading

“Finding ‘The Balm,'” Education Week

January 6, 2022June 13, 2022 Sarah Cooper

Over winter break, I walked with a childhood friend through a local botanical garden and I found myself briefly ranting about my job. All the COVID changes and restrictions are enough to make you want to leave education, I said. To be clear, I’m not leaving… Continue reading

“‘Dropping Into’ Google Docs,” Education Week

October 19, 2021October 21, 2021 Sarah Cooper

What I realized during remote teaching and then back in the classroom is how powerful Google Docs can be for a specific purpose: I can “drop into” a group’s work during class and help make their writing and research better than it would have been otherwise. In a recent resilient history podcast project… Continue reading

“New Yorkers: A City and Its People in Our Time” by Craig Taylor, Bookclique

September 15, 2021September 20, 2021 Sarah Cooper

Craig Taylor’s New Yorkers: A City and Its People in Our Time landed in my library stack when the world was starting to open up again, early spring 2021. At the time I wasn’t sure when I would be visiting the city again. But reading this book felt like walking the streets… Continue reading

“Seven Ways Educators Will Be Teaching Differently This Year and in the Post-COVID Era,” Education Week

August 21, 2021September 20, 2021 Sarah Cooper

Teaching remotely last year showed me how much more I could learn about my students. Here are three very human practices I want to continue in real life… Continue reading

“Raising a Rare Girl: A Memoir” by Heather Lanier, Bookclique

July 7, 2021June 13, 2022 Sarah Cooper

In Raising a Rare Girl: A Memoir, Heather Lanier is so honest and beautiful on the page that writing a review feels like the palest shadow of the book. Describing her daughter Fiona, born with severe developmental delays and diagnosed with the unusual Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome, Lanier asks us to envision a different way of looking at people with disabilities… Continue reading

“Time to Plant Tears,” Well-Schooled

June 8, 2021June 17, 2021 Sarah Cooper

Lately, the world has been opening up here in our corner of Los Angeles, and I’ve been crying, a lot. Tears have arrived at strange times, in public and private, and more than they did for the entire pandemic year before that. It has taken me a while to figure out why…. Continue reading