It’s an unfortunately familiar scene in my classroom – one of my students raising their hand, fist balled, ready to land a punch in a dispute over a cup of crayons or the last available tricycle. When you’re caught in a classroom that bounces back and forth between two distinct languages and it’s your first…
read more »There is something inherently emasculating about revealing oneself as a preschool teacher in conversation with strangers. It’s always an interesting social experiment, however, and I usually take one of three routes: simply state that I teach pre-K, go vague and say that I work with younger elementary students, or drop the TFA bomb and let…
read more »Stacey and Ryan, the co-founders of eAdvance, have begun asking staff members to present at our weekly meetings about the eAdvance story and our roles in it. The following is my presentation from this morning. I met Stacey and Ryan on January 19, 2012. They were two South Africans on a research trip to the…
read more »On Saturday, I attended TedxSoweto, an independent TED conference focused on solutions to close the wealth gap in Africa. Before I spend this post bemoaning the state of the South African education system, I want to take a moment to acknowledge how incredible it is that Soweto was the site of a conference affiliated with…
read more »It’s hard to say goodbye to summer, even when you’re 4 weeks into the year. Was I really in Argentina a month ago? Did that trip to Brazil actually happen? Can those memories of sipping coconuts on Rio beaches already be fading? Year three has brought an unanticipated frenzy. First trigger: I moved to a…
read more »Five weeks ago, I moved to Johannesburg, South Africa to join eAdvance as the Director of Development and Leadership. It turns out that opening a primary school is an all-hands-on-deck sort of endeavor. Yes, I do develop curriculum, design professional development sessions, and hire terrific faculty, but I am also responsible for a number of…
read more »“Miss Won! Today at recess, I was writing with my pencils (holding two giant Ticonderoga pencils)… so my muscles got strong AND my brain got strong!” -1st grader in my class, after malleable intelligence lesson I made the mistake of not keeping a blog during my first year of teaching. Things got rough, busy, etc.…
read more »My students are featured on the band OK Go’s Facebook page for their simple machine drawings based on the music video “This Too Shall Pass” (http://vimeo.com/10977948). As a Do Now activity in spring 2011, they were instructed to watch the video, choose a favorite simple machine, and explain how the machine changed the direction of…
read more »Today marks one month since I left the Bay Area. In 11 days, I will move to Johannesburg, South Africa to begin my next adventure in education. I will serve as the Director of Development and Leadership for EAdvance, a uniquely South African education company that provides affordable private education to low income communities. Similar…
read more »Applying to Teach For America was easy. I’m not saying getting in was simple, and I’m definitely not saying that the extensive amount of work required throughout the application process was a walk in the park — what was easy was determining that this organization, this cause, was aligned entirely with the vision I had…
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