You’re probably already doing it. Now, do it deliberately. — (with many thanks to Brian Palacios) I first encountered the term “cogenerative dialogue” in 2017 when, as a brand new teacher, I read Christopher Emdin’s For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood. Prior to my teaching career, I inhabited relatively privileged, predominantly white spaces: a New Jersey suburb, an…

It’s tax season, which means most adults in the US are currently figuring out how to file their taxes, and most kids vaguely know about taxes as a thing they’ll need to do in the future. When my students feel particularly disconnected from school, they tend to ask, “When are…

When every day just isn’t their day — This isn’t about teacher burnout, although I first put pen to paper after a particularly grueling day at work. This is about how pandemic trauma manifests in America’s teens, how we see it in the high school classroom, and how it’s affecting a generation. I’ve heard many education-adjacent professionals suggest…

How to do it and teach it too — Note: this post was written jointly by Greg Benedis-Grab and Elissa Levy, to show how we teach the math of machine learning to high schoolers and to high school teachers. Introduction We (Greg and Elissa) met while teaching coding to high school students with Upperline Code. About a year later…

Why I teach high school physics and computer science in New York City I am proud to say I earned tenure this year. It’s in my nature to be always reflecting, but the tenure process catalyzed a deeper articulation of my “why.” …

I’ll be the first to admit it: this past school year, my high school physics students learned far, far less physics than in any other year of my career. It’s not surprising: live classes met twice a week instead of daily, and over half of that time was spent on…

My two birth stories, two years apart March 2018 Around week 36 or 37 of pregnancy, Dr. R. said that I was not at all dilated, but I was very effaced. I had been expecting to deliver late, since I had heard that the majority of first-birth cases are late…

The best new club for your school this fall — This article is co-authored by Elissa Levy (teacher) and Rosemarie A. (student). Note: after we published this, we came across McDonald’s piece in Educate , which also discusses how to teach adulting skills, in particular for individuals with autism. …

Let your students in on it. — Interdisciplinary thinking is best done in a space of freedom and joy, which makes it a great summer activity. Whatever you find yourself doing this summer, take a moment to reflect on how it draws from various disciplines. Disciplinary boundaries are arbitrary. We draw distinctions among subjects in order to…