White Teacher Fails: Part 2- Curriculum
I was centering curriculum on my own white experience rather than the needs of my students.
Read MoreWhite Teacher Fails: Part 1- Labs
Here is my plea to other teachers: don’t deprive students of meaningful learning opportunities as a disciplinary technique. Studies have shown that students of color are much more likely to be given harsher disciplinary consequences than their white peers. Punishing the whole class by taking away learning experiences such as labs only widens the achievement gap.
Read MoreSleep: Confessions of a Former End-Duck
For as long as I can remember, I’ve been a terrible sleeper. I’ve been like a prey animal, always on the lookout, unable to fully rest
Read MoreFake Tanning and the Orbs of Distraction
With shaking hands, I unwrapped a cheerful turquoise suit made of a modest swim skirt and a triangle top. It was cut so low I hoped to achieve “orbs of distraction,” that would deter attention from the less desirable parts of my body.
Read MoreAirport Phobia
"Do you want me to call security?”
Read MoreGroped atop the Second Pitch
Fear froze me into full-blown rigormortis. I was so shocked and scared I couldn’t do anything.
Read MoreHow not to go rock climbing in Spain
“Necesito equpio para escalar. Es possible rentarlo? I need climbing equipment, is it possible to rent?” My high school Spanish was rusty.
The well-dressed saleslady (I’d never seen staff in heels at a sporting goods store before) wrinkled her nose at my unwashed clothes that still stank from my bus/train/ferry travel from Morocco.
Read MoreThe Clueless Teacher
I was an idealistic college grad in 2007, and I wanted to help people. I also wanted to be as bad ass as Michelle Pfeiffer in Dangerous Minds. I decided that the best way to do so would be to teach at a high school in the South Bronx. I joined NYC Teaching Fellows, an accelerated teachers prep program that would allow me to move into my own classroom in September, only three months after leaving the womb of undergrad.
I wasn’t ready.
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