PinnedExplaining to My Eight-Year-Old That Yes, She Too, is Racistby Jonathan Osler On a recent road trip up the California coast, with our kids zoning out on an iPad in the backseat, my wife and I turned on the fantastic podcast Code Switch. Halfway through the episode, one of the guests, a Black man named George, remarked: “Everyone’s racist.” …Jonathan Osler9 min read
Dec 5, 202110 Activities for Building Community in Virtual Spacesby Jonathan Osler Over my 20+ year career as a high school teacher and principal, university instructor in teacher education, parent organizer, and nonprofit leader, I developed facilitation practices that were engaging and equity-centered. But in March 2020, when Zoom took over my work world, I had to quickly pivot…Jonathan Osler8 min read
Nov 10, 2021Yes, social justice can be a tool to teach California students math.by Jonathan Osler A similar version of this essay originally ran in the San Francisco Chronicle At this moment, in math classrooms across California, students are asking themselves the same questions many of us asked ourselves when we were their age: Why do I need to learn this? …Math5 min read
Sep 13, 2021How enduring 9/11 memories from Brooklyn shaped me as a teacherby Jonathan Osler I never met Marlyn del Carmen Garcia, whose graduation portrait I stared up at with sadness for almost six years. My first day of student teaching in Brooklyn, New York, was on Sept. 11, 2001, the day Marlyn died on the 101st floor of the North Tower…Jonathan Osler5 min read
Aug 17, 2021Math Literacy, Civil Rights, and LemonadeCarrying on the legacy of my former teacher, Bob Moses, with my own undergraduate STEM education students. — by Jonathan Osler, August 2021Bob Moses4 min read
Feb 6, 2019Buying My Way Into An Oakland Public Schoolby Jonathan Osler The Oakland Unified Board of Education is considering giving some families a so-called “Opportunity Ticket”, but the reality is that many children in Oakland — mine included — already have one. My family lives in the Peralta Elementary attendance zone, and my two daughters attend school there…Education3 min read