Now in My Twenties

The young girl, bright-eyed, fresh-faced but also a little mischievous, loved writing in places she wasn’t suppose to write. The oh-so-popular ‘Blank was here’ on old picnic tables, dirty bathroom stalls, and rusty locker doors always made her chuckle. “Somebody was here before me,” she’d think, and for some unknown reason, that made her smile. “People should be allowed to leave their mark. That’s their God-given right.” The young girl, Catalina, was her name, ventured through life with these daring thoughts in mind. It was exactly this type of thinking that led her small hand to mark odd, little spaces in her very own bedroom. Scribbling, jotting, doodling, her inky pens scratched away. To the untrained eye, one might think the room is free of scribbles and scrabbles. The cleanliness of the white walls might fool them. But you ask Catalina to point them out to you and she’ll show you where you need to look. “Forget what you can see and think of what you can’t see. If...

These past few days have been the hardest days of our lives. The world has turned upside down; yet, it hasn’t. We’ve known all along that racism, sexism, and bigotry in all forms still exists. The two things that have changed is that (1) our so-called president-elect, “future leader of our nation,” is a blatantly outspoken racist, permitting and encouraging hatred to fuel our nation, and (2) racists everywhere now feel it is within their rights to “put us in our place.” It breaks my heart to see images of hate on the news—but it also fuels my own anger at this injustice, as it should fuel yours too. The time of lamentation is over. The time of action and perseverance has begun. I’m proud of my fellow minority brothers and sisters and white ally friends who have wasted no time in taking action. They fight in the name of love and justice, accepting the consequences that comes with it. I’m especially speaking to my teachers, parents, and mentors of students here:   we should all ...

Looks like it is my unpopular belief that candy is one of the worst motivators in teaching. Let’s just think about this for a bit. Candy, literally pure SUGAR, is a common method teachers use to motivate students to work. Forget the fact that candy is a direct way to harm a child’s health; candy is no different than any other type of currency for children. You are paying them to be students. Teachers using the candy-motivation strategy are failing their students. They are sending the wrong message. If your goal is to help students motivate themselves, it won’t be accomplished by throwing candy their way. It is such a short-term effect that using it in the classroom won’t make any difference in student motivation. If, in fact, student motivation is your goal, then you need to create an atmosphere of positive learning. If you want students to care, if you want students to motivate themselves, the motivators you offer them as a teacher should not be extrinsic, but rather intrinsi...