Teacher stories, interviews, and videos related to the beauty of teaching.
“The beauty of teaching is in the learning that happens every single day. They learn new things and I learn by teaching them. Every day, I keep learning how to be a better teacher.”
–Musa Jaafer
I became a teacher by luck. I was a chemical engineering major at Seton Hall University in New Jersey, where I grew up. There was a Special Olympics event, and I was setting up for it because I worked with…
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.
When you remove your children from this arena, you are not only stopping them from hearing other points of view, but you are stopping others from hearing your child's point of view.
I've been told, “this student can't read” or “they're a non-reader.” But in my class, in my play, they've learned their lines. So I believe strongly: the arts enhance every part of education.
I have the honor and joy of teaching U.S. history and civics to recent immigrant and refugee students. My students come from more than 30 countries: from Colombia, to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to Cambodia. Most of my students have been in the U.S. for less than five years.
I was pretty close with my brother. He ended up going to jail when I was in fourth grade. We were having morning meeting at school, and the question that day was, ‘How are you feeling?’