Reflecting & Storytelling About Teaching
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
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
When I’ve attended concerts in the past — all artists decidedly from a previous generation — I’ve carried motifs as well as melodies back into my life. With Billy Joel, storytelling laced with a tinge of regret; with the Indigo Girls, social change and righteous indignation; with Bruce Springsteen, evocative yearning for just about everything. Yet until recently, I’ve never… Continue reading
As a history teacher who covers current events daily with eighth graders, I’m all too accustomed to the hard classroom conversations that follow an unfathomable act of violence. Bomb threats, attacks at concerts, white supremacist rallies – my students and I have discussed them all… Continue reading
The person I always return to is my mother, Jane Schaffer. She taught high school English and was a teacher of teachers. I’ve written before about the help she gave me during my first years in the classroom. My mom reminded me… Continue reading
This week it has been even more of a pleasure than usual to spend time with eighth graders. They’ve been creating social reform concept maps, an oldie-but-goodie project that I… 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
Strangely, it has been a decade since I’ve asked my history students to do a hand-drawn concept map, a graphical representation of connections between their ideas. Part of the reason is that… Continue reading
Of course I check them every day. Doesn’t everyone? Each day, my 10-year-old’s summer camp website posts several hundred photos of activities. Pool play, maccabiah games, horseback riding. The images are glorious. They show… Continue reading
It is hard for us to admit failures, even small ones, as teachers. It’s easier to do it in the first several years, when everything is supposed to be new and challenging. But at some point between about five and 10 years in… Continue reading
