About Ms. Phillips:

I consider myself a life-long learner, even if I have been teaching since 1988, and I have taught English for 24 years. As the daughter of 2 teachers- my dad taught Social Studies, my mom taught English-- I was influenced by my parents' passion for their work in the field. With a strong background in the arts and languages, and a belief in wholistic education, I spent 10 years as a middle school teacher before moving to Mt. Eden, my 2nd home, in 2005. In 2009 I was the first at our site to pilot the CSU-based Expository Reading and Writing Course, motivated to deliver a more effective way to prepare 12th graders for college. Most of my high school years, my English coursework was heavily literature-based. Even as an Honors student, I felt woefully unprepared for the rigors of mostly non-fiction college reading and writing. ERWC addresses these gaps throughout the curriculum, but also provides a framework so that teachers can develop their own units.

Over the last 11 years I have expanded on the ERWC existing units and added on 3 of my own. The Rhetoric unit is both challenging and invigorating, academically. Our program offers opportunities for debate, editorial writing, as well as reflective writing, in-depth discussions, and acting out real-life scenarios, such as arguing for a raise, acing a job interview, or speaking up against injustice. Another favorite of students' units has been Film Analysis & Criticism. Students learn a great deal about film history, how to analyze a scene, critique a film, and even develop their own short film as part of a team.

I am most excited this year about the development of a new unit that centers of Race & Gender, using both non-fiction texts and film. These are profoundly important topics, including aspects of racial profiling, gender equity, and where ever these intersect. I look forward to engaging students in discussions, in breakout groups and the larger class format, as we move through many inspiring and provocative work by authors such as James Baldwin, W. Kamau Bell, Ijeoma Oluo, Ibram X. Kendi, Richard Rodriguez, Ta-Nahisi Coates, Rebecca Solnit, Bel Hooks, Toni Morrison, Margaret Atwood,Deborah Tannen, and more. Students will also view and discuss scenes from work by BIPOC filmmakers, such Spike Lee, Ava DuVerney, Dee Rees, Lulu Wang, Mira Nair, Patricia Cardoso, Karyn Kusama, Gregory Nava, and more.