“Are we reading today?” Amir* asked as soon as he stepped into the classroom one afternoon in March. “No,” I said, bracing myself for him and the rest of the class to celebrate. “Aww,”...
“I don’t think I am a good writer because I don’t like my handwriting!” October 2023 I walked into my classroom and sat down at my desk. I am a 3rd grade teacher in Oakland and...
As the last bell rang and the students rushed out of the front gates, I wandered into Zander’s classroom to process our days. We teach different subjects at our public high school in Oakland Unified School District, he,...
“Why do we do circle time?” I asked my focal student. “To listen.” As I heard my students’ responses as to why they thought we did circle time, it starkly contrasted my reasons for...
“What if we formally planned and started hosting our Science and History department meetings together?” As chairs of two separate departments – History and Science – we initially viewed our leadership roles as two parallel rivers,...
During my Public Health Solutions class at Castlemont High School in Oakland, we began discussing careers in the healthcare field and what educational background is needed to be qualified. When, out of the blue, a student eloquently said,...
“Me? A Teacher Leader? No way, I’m just a follower. I’m good at following directions. How can I LEAD my fellow colleagues who have decades more teaching experience than me?” These were...
One thing that I have learned on my journey in education is that not everyone is data positive like me. From the time when I was a new teacher, twenty years ago, working in primary schools...
I remember it all began on August 12, 2022, a few days before school started. Our Monroe leadership team had chosen to meet and plan early before the school year started. We knew we had important work to...
Ms. Sato: “Now [at the end of the school year], how do you feel about math?” I asked this question with a little trepidation to one of my most challenging students in the last weeks of...
