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Erica Jacobs
Erica Jacobs: A complex lesson in gender roles
- Fifteen years ago it was considered “edgy” to teach Zora Neale Hurston’s novel “Their Eyes Were Watching God” to high school students. The curriculum leaned heavily on Dead White Males.
Erica Jacobs: Life and death in a high school
- This has been a difficult week at Oakton High School. Last weekend, one of our students was killed in a terrible automobile accident with another of our students at the wheel. The boy who died had an older brother in the senior class, so many felt connected to one of the three.
Erica Jacobs: Education needs some unpredictability
- Teachers and students live in an alternate time plane.
Erica Jacobs: Students ask ‘Who Am I?’
- Who am I? Am I a teacher? A mother? A wife? A columnist? Where does one identity begin and the other end? We ask ourselves similar questions over and over, often surprising ourselves with our conclusions.
Erica Jacobs: In praise of the average student
- Should we “track” students according to ability or performance? In Fairfax County, there has been a lively debate over this question for at least 15 years. Jay Mathews, my favorite education reporter, has recorded varying parent and teacher opinions in his Washington Post articles. No one has a simple answer.
Erica Jacobs: Teaching the second time around
- Whoever said you only go around once hasn’t visited the teachers’ lounges of Oakton High School recently. In the last 10 years, several of our best teachers have come to the classroom after long careers in law, government or in the military. And they are all men.
Erica Jacobs: What parents want from teachers
- Eliot Waxman, with whom I teach Senior Seminar, greeted the parents of our students with a smile. “I know how you feel,” he added. “I just went to my first back-to-school night for my son in kindergarten.” There was a chorus of “Awwwws.” A parent piped up, “But the desks were smaller, right?” We all laughed as Eliot conceded, “I didn’t even try to sit in a desk. I stood.”
Erica Jacobs: What’s in a high school student’s name? Plenty.
- Three weeks into the school year, I am faced with my hardest task. With standardized tests and increasing expectations for all teachers, how can there be a single “hardest” task?
Erica Jacobs: Slaying the college essay dragon
- Every September, I conduct a college essay-writing workshop that seems like one giant Dr. Phil show. I start out with 60 anxious high school seniors, and end the class with nearly all of them reassured, sporting a “can do” attitude and the beginning of a good essay.
Erica Jacobs: What becomes of the bored student?
- Teachers often wonder what happens to students who were bored by our classes. What are they doing? What sparked a passion in college? Former students who return to say hello are usually the ones who were engaged all along.
Erica Jacobs: The school column no one will read
- It’s Labor Day, and as someone who writes a Monday column, I know all about holidays. On Memorial Day, New Year’s Day and Columbus Day, I am lucky if my son e-mails, “Good column, Mom!”
Erica Jacobs: Summer is another word for teacher rehab
- My name is Erica Jacobs, and most of the year I am strung out. That’s right, as a teacher, I am plagued with serious problems. I am sleep-deprived, operating on sensory overload 24/7, perpetually overwhelmed with a sense of responsibility I do and do not have.
Erica Jacobs: Watch and learn: There really may be real value in reality TV
- Your children are watching it, my students are watching it. Heck, you and I are watching it. It’s reality TV. Is it, contrary to its title, total escapism, or does it have something to teach?
Los Angeles Examiners
Colin Ward-Henninger
Los Angeles Lakers Examiner
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Los Angeles Lakers Examiner
Most Recent Article
Pau Gasol votes for his favorite All-Star...himself
