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

“The Do’s & Don’ts of a Quick Shift to Remote Learning,” Education Week Teacher

March 25, 2020March 29, 2020 Sarah Cooper

Here’s how my second meeting with one class started last week, when three students opened up a chat on Google Meet:

1:16 PM

can i go to the bathroom

1:16 PM

we didn’t have to turn in a current event today right… Continue reading

“What Students Can Learn by Writing to Politicians,” MiddleWeb

February 10, 2020March 23, 2020 Sarah Cooper

Writing a letter to a politician is about as “civic” an assignment as we can do within our classroom walls, and it feels especially relevant in our polarized political climate. For the first two years that my U.S. history and civics students wrote these letters, though, I didn’t quite… Continue reading

“The Starless Sea” by Erin Morgenstern, Bookclique

February 5, 2020March 23, 2020 Sarah Cooper

It has been decades since I’ve wanted to live in the world of a fantasy novel as much as the one in Erin Morgenstern’s The Starless Sea. Entering the caverns of a vast secret underground library – one accessed through doors in our world both hidden and in plain sight – made me feel as if… Continue reading

“Seven Ways to Bring Current Events Into the Classroom,” Education Week Teacher

January 26, 2020March 23, 2020 Sarah Cooper

We can link current events to what we teach in the classroom in at least two ways—through content and through character. With content, teachers sometimes wonder how they can justify adding current events to their lessons… Continue reading

“Remembering What Matters With Elie Wiesel,” Well-Schooled

December 9, 2019March 23, 2020 Sarah Cooper

For the past 18 years, I’ve taught at secular schools with their own rich sets of values. But Ariel Burger’s Witness: Lessons from Elie Wiesel’s Classroom brought back memories from my early teaching and, in the process, helped me with two teaching conundrums… Continue reading

“How iCivics Helped Me Refresh the Constitution,” MiddleWeb

December 7, 2019March 23, 2020 Sarah Cooper

In my 8th grade U.S. history and civics class, which I’ve taught for seven years, our unit on the Constitution has always challenged me because it raises so many questions about curriculum planning… Continue reading

“Taking the Declaration in New Directions,” iCivics

November 19, 2019 Sarah Cooper

Every year, teaching the Declaration of Independence daunts me. The possibilities for modern and historical connections are vast, and I wonder if I could be doing more to cement the favorable concepts from this founding document into students’ minds… Continue reading