Reflecting & Storytelling About Teaching
Sarah Cooper agreed to answer a few questions about her book, Creating Citizens: Teaching Civics and Current Events In The History Classroom. “You write about teaching history as a chronology versus teaching it thematically. Can you elaborate on both, and why you choose a thematic focus?”… Continue reading…
A recent one-day professional growth workshop epitomized what I hope students will take away from my classes: a sense that their well-informed communication can change the world. The event, Poetic Convergence, was on a Saturday, and it took more than an hour… Continue reading
When my school has gathered data from our students through the High School Survey of Student Engagement and Middle Grades Survey of Student Engagement, a few favorite kinds of activities appear over and over again… Continue reading
Most days, I feel reasonably positive about how my classes have gone, in this my 19th year of teaching. I usually have in mind tweaks or even overhauls for next year’s version of that topic, but rarely do I feel that an entire project has fallen short of my expectations. But last month… Continue reading
It’s been a hard fall to talk about the news with my students. This is not a new or unique feeling. But it’s even harder than it used to be to find perspective, as I wrote about several years ago in the wake of depressing incidents at home and abroad… Continue reading
In many conversations, the topic of civics education comes with its own halo. The conventional wisdom is that it’s good, clean medicine, and if our children just… Continue reading
An eighth-grade history teacher at Flintridge Preparatory School who uses current events to inspire students to think and engage in deep discussions about the world around them, Sarah Cooper remembers watching the November 2016 election… Continue reading
Why did I worry? In my last blog post, I wrote about my fears surrounding a new project. My eighth-grade U.S. history students had chosen an issue they cared about in the news, and they were about to write and film spoken word poems about it. I was nervous, and… Continue reading
Regardless of where teachers land politically, and whether or not you hope to remain an impartial guide, it can sometimes feel like tiptoeing through a minefield to facilitate a balanced discussion of current events… Continue reading
Right now I’m barreling into the year with a project I’m beyond excited about. It asks students to choose a current issue in the news and then write and film their own spoken word poem about it. This spoken word poetry project feels unusual (okay, scary) to me in a number of ways… Continue reading
Sarah Cooper 