Los Angeles
CHANGE MY LOCATION
Erica Jacobs
What can be taught
- In a recent column, I argued that good writing can be encouraged in the classroom, but not “taught.” This column looks at the love for literature, which can be taught through modeling. Some of my most vivid memories of high school teaching come from students who surprised themselves (and me) by becoming inspired while reading a novel.
Summertime for teachers
- Teachers are saddled with two different stereotypes during the summertime. The first has us lounging around a pool or on the beach, reading classics and complaining about how hard our job is and how little we’re paid. The second has us selflessly teaching summer school for pennies in order to keep the evil mortgage collector at bay.
- Teachers are saddled with two different stereotypes during the summertime. The first has us lounging around a pool or on the beach, reading classics and complaining about how hard our job is and how little we’re paid. The second has us selflessly teaching summer school for pennies in order to keep the evil mortgage collector at bay.
What can’t be taught
- “You teach English? I’d better watch what I say!” pops up frequently in the nonclassroom life of all English teachers. I used to complain silently, “As though all English teachers do is correct grammar!” yet there are limitations to what we can and can’t teach.
What can't be taught
- “You teach English? I’d better watch what I say!” pops up frequently in the nonclassroom life of all English teachers. I used to complain silently, “As though all English teachers do is correct grammar!” yet there are limitations to what we can and can’t teach.
Testing positive
- Each year the College Board sends out Advanced Placement test results in mid-July, ending an agony of waiting for both teachers and students. The results this year were more charged than ever since my nearly 150 test-takers were my very last AP students.
Students grow like onions
- Less than two weeks ago, I was a full-time high school teacher, and had been for more than two decades. Although I always teach George Mason University classes during the summer as well as during the regular year, this summer seems different because these students are representative of my future. Now that I have a full-time college job, I will never again teach anyone younger than 19 years old.
Why I love teaching to the test
- Like most teachers, I dislike tests created by for-profit agencies promoting textbooks and particular methods of learning. But there is one test I don’t mind teaching to: the Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition test.
A footnote to my career
- Thanks to the popularity of my column “This is Sparta!—Facebook Prank or Political Statement?” I am now a footnote in Wikipedia. I have written about the Advanced Placement program for more than twenty years, yet this is the first column to create any buzz.
The things I carried
- All week long I have been carrying 23 years worth of high school teaching paraphernalia to the trash, to my car, to my house and to the thrift store. I have carried books and papers, student notes and George Foreman grills, paper plates, cough drops and Post-Its.
This is Sparta! — Facebook prank or political statement?
- Test takers strike back. A funny thing happened at the annual mass grading of Advanced Placement English literature exams. The exclamation “This Is Sparta!” popped up daily in exam booklets.
The world’s largest Gryffindor reunion
- Last week, J.K. Rowling startled many, including her audience, by delivering the commencement address at Harvard University. I had an invitation to that momentous event, but I chose instead to grade Advanced Placement exams in English Literature.
The last high school goodbye
- Thursday and Friday I saw my high school students for the last time, with very mixed emotions. I won't miss arriving before sunrise, or repeating the daily computer drill of recording absences for four classes of students. I am glad to be rid of the silly rules limiting times when students can go to the bathroom, and am especially thrilled I will never have to attend another faculty meeting.
