Sarah Cooper

Welcome!

Thanks for visiting! This is a place to find my writing, both education pieces and personal essays. I teach history and do academic administration at an independent school just north of Los Angeles. I’ve also written two books about history teaching, Creating Citizens (Routledge 2018) and Making History Mine (Stenhouse 2009), and write regularly for MiddleWeb and Education Week. I like to run, cook, play piano, listen to musicals, search for good bakeries and spend time with my husband and two sons. I’ve also taught English and love memoirs and young adult fiction. @sarahjcooper01 @sarahcooper.bsky.social

“What Guidelines Should Teachers Provide for Student AI Use?” ~ Education Week

December 15, 2025 Sarah Cooper

After almost three years of encouraging students to use large language models, my best suggestion is still to follow their advice! For a year-end reflective portfolio in May, about a quarter of my 8th grade U.S. history and civics students chose to write about… Continue reading

“5 More Things I Learned Sitting in a Classroom,” MiddleWeb

August 5, 2025October 26, 2025 Sarah Cooper

A decade ago, after a week of professional development through the Gilder Lehrman Institute at the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, I wrote a piece on what I’d discovered being a student again: “10 Things I Learned Sitting in a Classroom.” This summer I had another incredible chance to be a social studies learner… Continue reading

“Social Studies Books That Are Inspiring Teachers Right Now,” Education Week

July 7, 2025November 29, 2025 Sarah Cooper

So many phenomenal education books appear each year—both from university presses and from K-12 stalwarts such as Heinemann, Stenhouse, Routledge, and ASCD—that it can feel daunting to decide which to read! Here are a handful that have shaped my practice as a civics teacher and academic administrator, especially when times feel polarized… Continue reading

“Giving Students Agency to Help Tilt the World,” MiddleWeb

March 30, 2025May 1, 2025 Sarah Cooper

Every once in a while, I think about dropping regular discussions of current events from my eighth-grade history and civics class. Why? It would be easier to teach about the dormant past, not the contentious present. There would be fewer… Continue reading

“5 Strategies for Teaching Social Studies in Turbulent Times,” EdWeek

February 21, 2025March 1, 2025 Sarah Cooper

In all times and especially fluid times, we as social studies teachers can help students feel their own agency—beginning with understanding the news. In my classes, students bring in an annotated news article for homework once a week. On the other days, I start class with a brief overview of… Continue reading

“Sandwich” by Catherine Newman, Bookclique

January 23, 2025March 1, 2025 Sarah Cooper

I’ve been listening to “The Circle Game” lately. As a teenager I was pre-nostalgic before I really had anything to remember, and this Joni Mitchell song was one of a dozen loaded onto a mixtape. Later, I played it on nights driving… Continue reading

“What Students Say About Using AI,” Education Week

September 20, 2024November 11, 2024 Sarah Cooper

During the past school year, I wanted my 8th grade civics classes to be a place where students could experiment creatively with AI through large language models and image generators. I believe that AI is increasingly a helpful co-intelligence… Continue reading

“Teaching Beyond the Timeline” by China Harvey & Lisa Herzig, MiddleWeb

July 25, 2024November 11, 2024 Sarah Cooper

Many pedagogical books aim to reach “both busy precredentialed and veteran teachers,” as China Harvey and Lisa Herzig hope for Teaching Beyond the Timeline: Engaging Students in Thematic History. In both its realism and optimism, this book absolutely… Continue reading

“Strategies for Teaching the 2024 Election (Hold on to Your Hat),” Education Week

July 22, 2024November 11, 2024 Sarah Cooper

But it’s in students’ weekly choices of current events that their classmates and I will learn what issues matter most to them, which is how students will start to care about politics as a whole, now and as they grow up… Continue reading

“Humans Who Teach” by Shamari Reid, MiddleWeb

June 6, 2024November 11, 2024 Sarah Cooper

One of my enduring memories of childhood is going to the house of family friends after a monthly Friday night Shabbat service. My mom would grab a brownie or piece of pie and then … Continue reading