Now in My Twenties

Friends and Family, as you may or may not know, I am now a high school teacher in Dallas. I teach 9th grade Professional Communications, which involves practical learning that applies to the real world, such as business writing, business etiquette, ACT prep, college and career readiness, and much more.  One of the first things I’d like to do for my scholars is connect them with people who work in the same industry they’d like to join. So far, my scholars have expressed an interest in dentistry, business, engineering, marine biology, nursing, medicine, acting, law, and journalism. They have also expressed interest in the following universities: UCLA, TCU, Florida State, MIT, Johns Hopkins, Harvard, Yale, and Berkeley. My scholars are very eager to learn more about these college and career paths and what it takes to succeed in them. I am reaching out to all my colleagues to assist my scholars in their networking. Please know that if I reach out to you, it is because you ar...

This text was originally written in May 2016 for Teach For America purposes. Now that my TFA commitment is coming to a close, I have decided to publish my Articulation of Leadership and share with my fellow teachers in hopes that it might express the importance of our work and inspire teachers to continue teaching. ... The academic school year 2015 through 2016 was a year of many changes. I started my new career as an educator; before I had been an editor. This was a big jump for me. I went from reading and editing books every day to teaching children how to read. The decision to change careers was not an easy one, but I knew without a shadow of doubt that I wanted to teach. More specifically, I wanted to teach literacy. Truth is: I love reading and writing. I love it so much that I want to share it with the rest of the world. And there is no better place to begin than in the classroom. My students sharing and celebrating a book we published   titled The Day the Students Too...

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...

This post is a little late in timing. I know graduation was back in May—and to all those who graduated, congratulations! It wasn’t easy. Hell, it was really hard. But that’s okay because you did it and no one can ever take that away from you. But now that it’s been a few months; now that you’ve had a chance to settle in; now that you’ve seen a little bit of The Real World, I’m sure you have found yourself questioning at some point or other, “Is this it?” and maybe even “what now?” I know because I am still asking myself those questions too. Now, I might be wrong. You could be doing exactly what it was that you had set out to do after graduation. You could be making the big bucks; travelling the world; finding the love of your life; moving to New York, et cetera, et cetera. Or you could be at a grayish cubicle day in and day out with a nondescript job title earning little more than $15 an hour. For many of us, this is our reality. But let me be very clear, this is not a...