Reschool Yourself

Tuesday’s theme for Blog for IDEC 2012 Week was “Real education is human.” I’m cross-posting this from the IDEA blog.
“Human education” brings to mind something I witnessed in the third grade classroom at El Verano Elementary. When I was a student at El Verano (the first time around), the school was predominantly white, with a [...]

This is Chapter 4 of a story about Reschool Yourself that I wrote for a GoodReads.com contest, which asked for a story written in a 24-hour period purely in status update form. Each line could be only up to 140 characters, though I’ve edited slightly here for readability. Chapter 3 told stories of my return [...]

This is Chapter 3 of a story about Reschool Yourself that I wrote for a GoodReads.com contest, which asked for a story written in a  24-hour period purely in status update form. Each line could be only up to 140 characters, though I’ve edited slightly here for readability. Chapter 1 gave a background on the [...]

I expected 8th grade to be as emotionally turbulent as I’d remembered it, with kids constantly eye-rolling, scoffing, teasing, and just generally being too cool to talk to you. I admit to being one of  the worst offenders. The current 8th graders at Altimira are nice. Let me repeat that: They’re nice! The ones I’ve [...]

This will be a quick update, because it’s again well after midnight, and my body is telling me that it’s fed up with my late-night writing sessions. Last night I stayed up until 4 a.m. writing about my rediscovery of music. There’s no telling when creative inspiration will strike, but I am going to start [...]

I’m writing from a little library in the Maryland town where my mom’s parents live. They’ve lived in the same house since 1959, and they’ve actively refused to hop on the Interweb party bus. (I think my grandpa’s exact words were: “Don’t buy a computer for me. I won’t use it.”) As a result, I [...]

I first worked with fourth graders through the I Have a Dream after-school program in East Palo Alto. I taught Creative Writing/California History to a small group of low-income African American kids, and they were quite a handful. Later that year, I substituted in a fourth grade class of wealthy white kids at a private [...]

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This one comes with a story about my Marsha Brady moment (remember the wayward football episode, the one where she’d invited Davy Jones to play at the prom?).
I don’t think I’ve ever won a game of tetherball, and today at recess, I decided it was time to reschool myself. If [...]

Yesterday I remembered what it feels like to get in trouble at school.
I arrived during morning recess, and immediately a group of my 3rd grade classmates accosted me, pestering me to tell them more scary stories. I hesitated, asking them whether they’d had any nightmares.
“I couldn’t go to sleep at first,” one girl said, “but [...]

I never thought I’d get the chance to say it, but it’s true. I’m the most popular girl in my class. This is the first time I’ve ever had that experience, and you better believe that I’m loving it.
I wish that I could have known 20 years ago, when I was in 3rd grade, that [...]