What Makes a Teacher? Teacher as Learner, Guide, and Caregiver

This Thanksgiving, I want to take a moment to give thanks to the many educators who have positively shaped my thinking, learning, and teaching at various stages of my life. I would not have had the courage or the motivation to pursue a profession in education, were it not for my own teachers. They ignited in me a love of learning and cultivated the right environment for me to experience growth. Thus, I devote this essay to my teachers and to my colleagues who are teachers.

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Writing in Graduate School: Reflecting on the Art of Teaching

This is me, sharing one of my last papers written during my first year of graduate school at Teachers College, writing as Catherine Cheng. Here, I reflect on the tendency of teacher preparation programs to overemphasize practice rather than to provide a rich education that supports teachers in recognizing the aesthetics of teaching. I argue for a recognition of and, perhaps, a return to an “art” of teaching that takes into account the affective dimension and emotional labor of working with students.

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New Year's Resolutions for College-Bound Students: 19 Ideas

To start off this year, I am sharing 19 ideas (in honor of 2019!) for “New Year’s resolutions” for college-bound students. Even if college is not on your radar at the moment, you may still find these ideas to be relevant to you. Likewise, if you are already in college, it does not hurt to skim through the list and see what you are doing already and what you might want to consider as a goal…

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10 Years Later: On Being a Student Again

It is 10pm on a Tuesday evening as I’m starting to write this, but this Tuesday feels different. This Tuesday is September 4, 2018, and today was my first day back in school, but not as a teacher. Today, I became an official student again---a doctoral student in an Ed.D program in the Department of Curriculum and Teaching…

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