Ebony Manion | The many jobs of teaching
When I was in first grade or second grade, they pulled me out of the classroom to teach other students how to read. I guess I was a really good reader. I don't remember why they asked me, but they…
Teacher stories related to urban education. This includes interviews with teachers who currently work in cities, as well as interviews where teachers speak to their experience in “urban education” or “urban schools.”
Keshawn Bostic | High expectations in Dallas
When I was going into high school, I wanted to be a lawyer. That was my goal. I got into boarding school and during my freshman year, I played football. At the end of my freshman year, they cut the…
Raphael Bonhomme | Teacher collaboration and how “iron sharpens iron”
It wasn't my original plan to become a teacher. At first, I didn't know if I was gonna go to college or not, but I ended up getting accepted into three schools. I wanted to do advertising. I was being…
Hannah Halpern | Navigating the DC Public Schools system
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,…
Alexandra Mondelus-Duffy | Middle school math and Haitian-American community
I never thought of becoming a teacher. Early on, I wanted to be a pediatrician, but I was more interested in studying mental health and behavior vs. other sciences, so I thought, ‘Psychology would work.’ I thought it was a…
Kritika Srinivasan | Behavior and bearded dragons
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 —…
BryAnn Sandy | Reflections of a new teacher
I was born in Brooklyn. I grew up from pre-K to seventh grade in the Bronx — but then they started to raise the rent. The buildings were terrible. My mom told us the rent prices and the conditions of…
Chris Madson | “I think you’re the first teacher that ever recognized me”
I was in high school at the height of the AIDS crisis. And as a 13- and 14-year-old, I would sneak away into the city to meet up with this group of people, mostly gay men and Black women, who…
Maribel Rosendo-Servin | Why I decided to be an ethnic studies teacher
My family is from a small village in Guanajuato, Mexico. My dad had been coming to the United States since he was 15 to provide for his family. My mom was hesitant to leave her family and friends, but she…
Raymond Lie | “I’ve never questioned staying in teaching”
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…