Reflecting & Storytelling About Teaching
I wanted to read this book not only because Bruni has been one of the most versatile writers in the New York Times over the years (restaurant critic and Rome bureau chief, to name a couple), and not only because I read his book about college, Where You Go Is Not Who You’ll Be, twice before my older son applied, but also because I had my own brush with vision loss… Continue reading
As my older son heads off to college in a couple of weeks, I’m repeating myself. Even I can tell it’s annoying, but I don’t stop. I tell him: Go to office hours. Get involved in extracurriculars. Don’t skip classes like I did, after finding a boyfriend freshman year. Be curious, find something that interests you, get out to exercise. I’ve told him these things 10 times, 100, and yet I keep saying them like a talisman… Continue reading
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
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
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
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
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
These days I find myself drawn to story after story about immigration policy, wondering about the faces behind the statistics. Yet Jenny Torres Sanchez’s We Are Not From Here sat on my shelf for longer than I wanted…. Continue reading
Lately I’ve come back to the same image when I fantasize about having every student back in the classroom, particularly the 8th graders I love so much. They are maskless. They need no sanitation. And, most of all, they sprawl. These middle schoolers lean shoulder to shoulder… Continue reading
To watch a video of the cast of Annie singing at the 1977 Tony Awards is to be caught up in the simplicity and buoyancy of a smash hit from four decades ago. The performance begins with the orphans singing… Continue reading
Sarah Cooper 