About Me
I'm a former college writing instructor currently serving as Program Manager for University of California Curriculum Integration. I am passionate about media literacy and technology.In addition to being an educator, I am also a writer whose work has appeared at Poynter.org, the San Francisco Appeal and SF Public Press. I also write the blog, San Francisco Treats--my tribute to all the best treats you can find in one of the best cities in the world.
I love cooking, baking, reading and hiking...and running up and down the hills of San Francisco. I can be reached via email at s.e.fidelibus [at] gmail [dot] com, and through any of the social media channels you see below. I would love to hear from you.
Connect
- "Great read--> MT @pomeranian99: Now courts are using the Urban Dictionary to help them parse street slang: http://t.co/HzOmOVUFXf"8 hours ago"@meghannCIR Yep. I figured. And it's understandable, given the merger."yesterday"@meghannCIR OK! :-) TBC used to be very Bay-Area-focused. Mourning loss of that a bit, as it seems local media variety continues to shrink."yesterday
Author Archives: Sarah
‘Free of other people’s inventions’–A case for diversity–not ‘objectivity’ in the newsroom
The quote is on my mind now because I am thinking about diversity. And bias. And the places where we get our information. An ongoing debate among citizens and journalists alike concerns whether or not we should–or even can–expect “objectivity” from those charged with the responsibility of delivering to us the world’s news. One camp (and for the sake of full disclosure, I should say that this camp is the one that I reside in) argues that “objectivity” is a myth–no news coverage can be stripped of all possible slant, and that fact in and of itself does not make slanted coverage immediately irresponsible or unreliable. Those on the other side of the debate disagree, arguing that “objective” journalism is both possible and necessary for democracy; only with objective journalism can citizens come to their own conclusions about the issues and events of the day. Continue reading
Waiting for the rest of the movie: Why Waiting for Superman was an unfinished film at best
It’s really a bummer when a film you’ve looked forward to seeing for months turns out to be a huge disappointment. but that was the case for me when I saw Waiting for Superman. The documentary seeks to highlight the increasing ineffectiveness of public school systems throughout the United States, and to illustrate the harm these failing schools are doing to our kids–and by extension to our society as a whole, which suffers the effects of a poorly-educated populace: higher crime rates, entrenched poverty, and–according to the film–not enough skilled workers to fill the professional jobs of the future. Continue reading
Schooled by the L.A. Times: The good, the bad, and the ugly of ‘Who’s teaching L.A.’s Kids?’
I taught writing at SF State for nine years, and during that time, I also taught a semester at Lowell High School and a year at Berkeley High. Before I came to San Francisco, I was a teacher’s assistant in two public high schools in San Diego. I have spent nearly all of my adult life thus far working in education–and that is to say nothing of the 23 full years I spent as a student–from elementary school through graduate school and a year spent earning my teaching credential for secondary education.
As you might expect, all of this time spent in schools has led me to form some opinions about education–about what works and why and what doesn’t. So when the Los Angeles Times published a story earlier this week titled, “Who’s teaching L.A.’s kids?”, I read it with a good deal of interest. Continue reading
Scenes from the Fort Mason Community Garden
After Off the Grid this past Friday, we found ourselves in the Fort Mason Community Garden. I had never been there before, and I could have stayed for hours wandering between each of the lovingly-tended gardens. I couldn’t help taking pictures of the many beautiful flowers there (especially dahlias, which are a favorite of mine); I also loved the various items people placed in their plots as garden ornaments. The whole place is gorgeous and peaceful; definitely stop by for a visit next time you’re in the area. Continue reading
Emily Bazelon tries to explain ‘What really happened to Phoebe Prince,’ but finds many readers don’t trust her account
Emily Bazelon’s recent series of articles for Slate seeks to answer the question: “What really happened to Phoebe Prince?”. In her series, Bazelon offers readers a far more nuanced look at Phoebe Prince and the students who bullied her than readers got from most of the other media outlets that covered the story of Prince’s suicide. Readers learn from the first article in Bazelon’s series that Phoebe had been troubled long before she was bullied by classmates at South Hadley High–long before, in fact, she had even left Ireland, the country where she was born and raised. Continue reading
Posted in Alternate Realities
Tagged emily bazelon, phoebe prince, slate, slate article about phoebe prince
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Imperfect Pitch: Men, Women, and the Art of Selling Ourselves
Because right now I am both looking for a job and spending time on Match.com, I’ve been thinking a lot about the differences between how people “sell themselves.” And, in fact, one of the things that has made the Match.com experience so frustrating for me is the frequency with which men “pitch” themselves in the same manner in which Sicha describes in his blog post. Continue reading
Posted in Alternate Realities, My SF
Tagged choire sicha, male/female communication styles
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When D-Bags Attack: The Citibank ‘Hot Girl’ Firing
This past Tuesday, the Village Voice asked, “Is This Woman Too Hot to Be a Banker?” The article tells the story of Debrahlee Lorenzana, a woman who alleges that Citibank fired her for her being too sexxy hott. I don’t … Continue reading
‘The Poetry of Nobody Home’: Craigslist’s Missed Connections
I think most everyone has checked “Missed Connections” at least once or twice–if for no other reason than to see what it’s about. I’m a more frequent visitor to that section than most; though I don’t check it every day, I read it regularly–not to see if anyone’s posted a message for me, but because I like the messages on their own for the kind of artifacts they are: snapshots of a fantasy in progress, a printed record of an encounter so striking that the writer has imbued it with a cosmic significance. Continue reading
Like George Costanza, I’m Trying to End on a High Note
As rewarding as it can be to have one of the “difficult” students turn around and start taking herself, the material, and you seriously, the journey to that point is mostly just exhausting. Whereas in my first few years of teaching I couldn’t wait to go to work everyday, I now just feel drained most of the time. Oddly, though, my students don’t seem to have noticed: My most recent rating on Rate My Professor notes that I am (apparently) “always perky and nice.” My friend explained why this might be the case in an email to me the other day. She wrote, “You are a teacher at heart, my dear. Which is not to say that you are fated to live the life of a teacher, but you do love your students and what you do.” Continue reading
San Francisco Spring: The Raw & the Cultivated
Spring has arrived in San Francisco, an explosion of color interrupted at times by rainstorms and gray skies. This slideshow is a celebration of both sides of spring: pre-storm clouds along the rugged, expansive coastline and the bright, sunlit flowers of the Strybing Arboretum and the Japanese Tea Garden. The Tea Garden may, to most San Franciscans, be a place for tourists, but I love it there; even when crowded with visitors, it manages to offer a sense of seclusion, a communion with blossoms and beauty–a welcome respite from days filled with buses and busy streets. Continue reading
