Who are you and what are you doing here?

The purpose of this website is to share the challenges, victories, and joy that are constantly happening in the classroom where I teach. I plan to use this website as a tool of resistance against the stress, anger, and sadness that come from working a job that is currently being systematically de-professionalized.

Hopefully, anyone reading this website knows that our public schools are under attack. While the issues can be very complicated, the fact is that teachers are given less time, less support, and less money to teach larger classes of students who our educational system treats only as a test score and a set of deficiencies. Critiques of public education often blame students, parents, and teachers for systemic problems rooted in our cultural prioritization of profits, data, and individualism over people, professionalism, and community.

The educational issues I discuss with my students and on this website are in no way specific to my school, district, city, or state. I love my students and my job. It’s that love that compels me to speak out about the injustices that are built into our educational system. My opinions do not and are not meant to reflect the wide variety of positions held by my students, colleagues, or district.

I am striving to develop curriculum and pedagogy where individuals can “experience support for acquiring a critical consciousness,” as bell hooks writes in Teaching Community. To be clear: I aim to engage students in a critical literacy that is anti-racist, feminist, queer, anti-colonial, anti-corporate, sustainable, community-oriented, and founded in empathy and love.

I recognize that teaching and learning flow in more than one direction, and am constantly grateful for the truths and trust that students share with me. I may refer to “my classroom,” or “my students,” but recognize that I am part of a classroom community; my students are my teachers, and “my classroom” is “our classroom.”

A little background, for those that are interested: I grew up in the Mid-Atlantic, moved to Oregon for a change of pace. I intended to go into public health and ended up getting my M.Ed. with endorsements in middle school and high school English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) and Language Arts. I went to the University of Oregon and was a member of the first cohort of a brand new teacher ed program focused on social justice. I’m in my second year of teaching in Portland, Oregon.

I hope you find joy, anger, and inspiration in the work and stories from our classroom.