Reflecting & Storytelling About Teaching
It has taken me a year to write this post, and I still feel inadequate. I’m writing about this experience because I want to take something from it – to understand better how I can prepare to teach, and then lean into, difficult topics… Continue reading
“Step, kick, kick, leap, kick, touch… Again!” As I banged out the opening octaves from the first song of A Chorus Line, the baby grand’s sound filling our black box theater, I realized I should have practiced more. And I definitely should have prepared more for… Continue reading
Here’s a bit of a confessional. For many years, with major writing assignments, I avoided reading my students’ rough drafts. I thought I didn’t have time – and that if I commented on the rough drafts Continue reading
The most effective civic education in my eighth-grade classroom is often the simplest. On Fridays, each student brings in an annotated newspaper article on any topic except sports or entertainment, and then three or four students present and field questions on their pieces. During the rest of the week… Continue reading
On a recent summer evening the house was quiet, except for our neighbor’s construction workers sweeping gravel off the driveway. I had just dropped off my younger son at tennis lessons and my older son at cross-country practice… Continue reading
For librarians Christina Dorr and Liz Deskins, getting the right book into the hands of the right kid at the right time is paramount – even more so when the topic is something not everyone wants to talk about… Continue reading
Sometimes I’ve been teaching a skill in such a mediocre way for so long that I hardly realize how much better it could be – until something shakes me from my stupor. For instance, I’ve always known that my students could use actual books more effectively in their research papers… Continue reading
A teacher friend and I have what we like to call a “book club of two.” We meet throughout the year and especially in the summers, on patios on L.A.’s Ventura Boulevard over spinach salad and iced tea, shrimp tacos and sauvignon blanc. We have no specific criteria, but the books we love… Continue reading
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
This is not one of those stories in which I show myself what I’m capable of or master a feat I’d never imagined accomplishing. Well, it’s sort of one of those stories — but really it’s a story about coaching, mentoring, and teaching. About how our seemingly small comments and actions can accrue to become… Continue reading
