teaching

Searching for My Mom, and the History of La Puente’s ‘Little Watts’

Greenberry, Where She Taught for Decades, Helped Forge Today’s Multi-Racial San Gabriel Valley

I lost my mom to COVID in February 2021. She died alone, after spending 10 excruciating days in the hospital. A year after her death, a white envelope with no return address arrived in my Pomona College mailbox. Inside was a photo of my mom from the early 1970s.

In the photo, she is standing between two corridors of Sparks Middle School’s brick campus in La Puente, where she taught until she retired in 2008. She smiles gently, with her arms by her side. Her hair is long and straight, and …

by Gilda L. Ochoa |

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Please Tweet @ Your #History Teacher

Navigating Misinformation, Hashtags, and Trolls Helps Teach Our High School Students to Be Good Digital Citizens

by Robert Seidel Jr. and Kurt Weisenburger |

For most teachers, social media has no place in a classroom. When they do use it, they often retreat to or remain within the safer confines of “walled garden” discussion …

Zoom Made Me a Better Teacher | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Zoom Made Me a Better Teacher

When Classrooms Went Digital, Relationship Building Became My Most Essential Tool to Keep Students Engaged

by Carl Finer |

The start of the new year at the middle school where I teach in South Los Angeles has been stressful; the rapid spread of the Delta variant shook us from …

How to Teach an American Inauguration | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

How to Teach an American Inauguration

Since 2008, My College Students Have Been Exploring—in Real Time—What the Transfer of Power Ceremony Reveals About the Nation

by Himanee Gupta-Carlson |

“Wouldn’t it be cool to go to D.C. for the inauguration?” I remember telling a fellow adjunct instructor in late 2008. Barack Obama had just been elected, and most of …

Hamlet Is a Suicide Text—It’s Time to Teach It Like One | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Hamlet Is a Suicide Text—It’s Time to Teach It Like One

A Scholar of Shakespeare Sees Perils and Possibilities in the Bard’s Plays, and His Own Experience

by Jeffrey R. Wilson |

I once tried to commit suicide. Twenty years later, it’s still hard to talk about. I didn’t want to die. Self-esteem issues, depression, alcoholism. I was signaling, in an unhealthy …

Want to Take My Civics Class? Get Ready to Squirm

Learning How America Works Should Be Hard on You, Not Just Good for You

By Sarah Cooper |

In many conversations, the topic of civics education comes with its own halo. The conventional wisdom is that it’s good, clean medicine, and if our children just get enough of …


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