Sarah Anderson

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Sarah Anderson teaches middle school humanities and interdisciplinary studies at a place-based charter school in Portland, Ore. Originally from rural Vermont, Anderson has also taught nature studies to urban middle school students in the California Redwoods, career skills to at-risk youth on an educational farm in Vermont and Civics and Global Studies at an independent school in Maryland. She earned a bachelor’s degree in American Studies at Bard College and a masters in education in Integrated Learning from Antioch New England Graduate School.


Pages authored by Sarah Anderson

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Breaking Through the Religious Divide The 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq marked my first year of teaching. When one of my students referred to Iraqis as “towel heads,” I told him he had to do...
Discovering Ordinary Bravery in the Movement Most students have heard Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. They also know of Rosa Parks’ refusal to move to the back of the bus....
Humanizing Middle Schools with Compliments Name-calling is pervasive in our culture. According to advocacy organization Mental Health America, teens hear anti-gay slurs approximately 26 times...
Decoding Media’s Image of Women Editor's Note: Teaching Tolerance launched a new series of lessons about Gender Expression for early grades. A featured lesson can be found here....
Daily Mix It Up Lunch Yields Big Shares My small school has no cafeteria. Students bring their own lunches and eat in the classroom with their teachers. When I first learned about this set-...
Middle School Mentors Cultivate Benefits A parent of a first-grader tried to wrangle her child from peering into my classroom. “He just can’t wait to be in middle school! He thinks your...
Class Meetings Build Community, Safe Zone The class was silent as we waited for Samuel to collect himself. It was a respectful silence that happens when everyone knows something powerful is...
Finding the Civil Rights Movement in Oregon Editor’s Note: Teaching Tolerance published a first-of-its-kind report in September examining the state educational standards for civil rights...
Perfection Check Needed in Middle Years For the past two years, I have taught in classrooms where the boys outnumbered the girls by a ratio of 3-to-1. Further, I noticed the girls in my...