“Why do I have to do that? You should be happy I’m doing anything.” Two students, with very different personalities, are both experiencing difficulty succeeding in our traditional public school. Both students have traumatic experiences in...
My goal for this past school year- to increase students’ sense of belonging at school- was based on one of my own insecurities. As the school social worker, I would walk around the hallways and classrooms, thinking I...
Going into the 24-25 school year, I knew I was going to have more students who were English Language Learners (ELLs) in my Career Technical Education (CTE) course titled “Introduction to Educational Psychology.” With this in mind, I...
“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,...
