Reflecting & Storytelling About Teaching
By this point – nearly two months in – the education community is overflowing with creativity about how to use ChatGPT’s disruptive technology in the K-12 classroom. Like so many teachers, I’ve felt both excitement and unease… Continue reading
As a teacher and administrator, helping new teachers is one of the best parts of my job. Here are two things I always end up saying at some point… Continue reading
As teachers over the past decade, we find the question of how to respond the day after a cataclysmic event has come up more than any of us would want. What do our students need and crave in these moments? How much do we share of our own feelings… Continue reading
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
Over the past five years, spurred by an imperative to help students make sense of our confusing world, the field of civics education has become what it rarely is: a hot topic… Continue reading
Culturally responsive teaching can take many different forms. An excellent recent EdWeek article defined it as taking into account “students’ customs, characteristics, experience, and perspectives as tools for better classroom instruction.” Although I often feel I’m only partially engaging with students’ backgrounds and experiences in my 8th U.S. history and civics classes, here are a few guidelines I try to follow… 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
The epigraph of Dolen Perkins-Valdez’s Take My Hand sets a historical, poignant, and fiercely resilient tone: “Ben, make sure you play ‘Take My Hand, Precious Lord’ in the meeting tonight. Play it real pretty.” – Martin Luther King Jr.’s reported last words, April 4, 1968. The song’s steadfast gospel lyrics equally describe the book’s protagonist… Continue reading
Lately I’ve been reading memoirs for reasons that remind me of a line from the uneven but wrenching musical Falsettos. It’s sung by the sometimes lovable, sometimes despicable protagonist: “I never wanted to love you/ I only wanted to see my face in yours.” But the best memoirs not only reflect back who you are. They also open worlds beyond your… 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
Sarah Cooper 