Hi, it’s been a while. I have been battling the black hole of endless teacher preparation and inching towards my goal of working fifty hours a week. Here are some standout books from my last three months of reading: Junji Ito’s Gyo, Shiver, and Dissolving Classroom – My students and I love Junji Ito.…
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It’s the first week of school, and it feels like I’m sprinting. I’m back to holding space for youth, to work days that somehow consume literally half my day and having back-up alarms. To be brief – this book is ah-mazing, and we should all buy it. It breaks down all the common core standards…
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[S]chooling is a political process, not only because it contains a political message or deals with political topics on occasion, but also because it is produced and situated in a complex of social and political relations from which it cannot be abstracted (53). I’m entering my third year as an English 9 teacher, and I’m…
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I can’t look at Amá without thinking about the border, I keep picturing her screaming on the ground, Apá with a gun to his head. I can’t ever tell him that I know. But how do we live with these secrets tied between us? How do we tie our shoes, brush our hair, drink coffee, wash…
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It’s been a week, and I can’t stop thinking about this book. In Culturally Responsive Teaching & The Brain, Zaretta Hammond avoids the pitfalls of often bro-y, “Your brain is a muscle – use or it lose it” studies on learning and the brain. Instead, Hammond clearly outlines the three major parts of the brain, and how…
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