There have been many, very important, conversations about teacher self-care lately. I am so glad this is happening, because I know I am one who suffers from spreading myself too thin while burning the candle at both ends! However, there is a constant refrain I hear from teachers who are trying to help people who […]
Sarah Mattie
Sarah Mattie is a teaching artist exploring options outside of the traditional classroom after 10 years. She has a soft spot in her heart for middle schoolers and is particularly passionate about diversity and equity in education. She lives with her husband and four rescue cats, including a tripod kitty, and loves to listen to podcasts.
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Janelle Monáe: Our Students’ New(ish) Role Model
Janelle Monáe. The name means many things to many people. Actress in the Oscar-winning films Hidden Figures and Moonlight. Musician. Android. African American. Pansexual. Queer. The meaning that is most important to me, though, is role model. Now, I know some teachers and parents will cry out that her music and videos aren’t exactly PG. […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Teaching the Kids We Have Right Now: LGBT+ Youth in the Classroom
In a recent NPR piece interviewing author Alex Wagner, she stated: “I think we do a lot of work in this day and age focusing on the future and on the past….we don’t invest enough in the present.”[i] Wagner was talking about her exploration of her genetic backstory, but the fact is, we focus on […]
Posted inFine Arts
Theatre Education: What TV Gets Right…and What it Gets Wrong
I am writing this immediately following watching the first episode of Rise, a new series about a high school English teacher, Lou Mazzuchelli (played by Josh Radnor), who is achieving his dream of directing the school musical. It opens with him convincing his wife he needed to do this (just like in Glee) and then […]