Stories, interviews, and videos where teachers discuss the public perception of teaching.
I studied history at the University of Michigan, and I played music for fun. I thought, ‘Okay, I'll graduate, and then I'll go start a band.’ That's what I did. We were called ‘Or, The Whale.’ I ended up moving…
My mother is a teacher. She is a wholehearted teacher. I grew up seeing her face light up with joy every time her students came up to her on the street: ‘Oh, hi, Miss, do you remember me? I was…
I pretty much always knew I wanted to work with kids because I always found joy in it. I felt I had innate instincts, and I knew how to navigate different situations. When I was seven or eight years old,…
My mom came to the U.S. from India. She got a scholarship to do her PhD in French at UCLA, and then she adopted me from India when I was six months old. It was a huge family occasion —…
I went to high school here in San Leandro, at the school where I teach. We have three ‘academy programs,’ where students can apply to go through 10th through 12th grade in cohorts focused on multimedia, business and finance, or…
I grew up in Wisconsin with nine younger cousins and two younger siblings. I was constantly asked to babysit them, from the time I was nine years old all the way until I left for college. At the time, I…
I grew up in San Francisco. My dad was a lawyer. I was told in school that I was good at debating and arguing with people, and I decided that's what I was gonna be: a lawyer. So for the…
Seven teachers from Madrid Neighborhood School in Phoenix, Arizona share their perspectives on K-12 education.
When I was a teenager, I had summer jobs as a custodian. It paid pretty well. So when I got to college, even though I was working as an office assistant in the pharmacy department, I decided to look for more hours cleaning schools. I figured I could do that until I got my degree in communications.
It's hard to view my career in stories. Maybe it's not even my story. Maybe it’s the story of my dad. I grew up in South Chicago. My dad was a preschool teacher. And everywhere we went, it was like, ‘El maestro, el maestro!’ And so that made me a celebrity by extension: la hija del maestro.