ISI 2022 Digital Anthology

A reflection on identity, culture, connection, and family

This photo essay explores my experiences working at a maximum-security women's prison when I was nineteen and why I dedicated my most recent book to the Women's Prison Association in New York City.

This graphic journal explores my inner turmoil when I'm faced with new or daunting situations, and my hope of learning to go easy.

A love letter to the complicated relationship between a daughter and her mother

A stream of conscious account of a student's journey with school. From unruly to academic success, this is mostly based on my real life interactions with one of my students and what I believe was going on in his head as he transformed.

Shout out to Monica for sharing this super cool way to write. This dialogue was inspired by a pair of sisters I went to school with. We danced togethers in our schools Spring productions each year... until this year...

This prose poem/creative nonfiction piece explores the relationship between mother and daughter and the sacrifices made by each as they grow up together.

This is a photo essay inspired by my experiences finishing graduate school during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although it was sad to miss out on a formal graduation, this moment was also a coming-of-age for me that I didn't expect.

Road trip through Michigan to trace family roots of Midwestern Mexican Americans

This poem is about the importance of creation as a too-often overlooked part of identity.

This is a hermit crab essay using the structure of a research paper to process and digest my experience getting to know my grandmother in India.

How could I thoughtfully integrate Asian American studies into the 5th grade curriculum in an educational setting where I very rarely work with Asian American students? This essay explores this question, as well as how and why Asian American studies has evolved in my classroom throughout the years.

The written version of my BAWP demo, including a partial transcript.

Often, we expect to find authentic student voice in creative writing but not so much in "academic" writing. A small shift in writing prompt can bring more student voice to the standard comparison/contrast essay.

A reflection on applying a variety of critical lenses to texts and the world in order to investigate how the dialectics of power play across different fields of identity and contexts.

This letter is in response to the work my students and I are doing in order to dismantle racists hate crimes in Benicia. #StopLaMigraNow

This piece is a reflection on the power of professional community, especially in times of crisis: I rediscovered this old truth this year, as my school weathered a pandemic and an urgent staffing shortage. By creating time and space for new teachers to conregate and discuss dilemmas in their classroom, we helped each other develop the ability to problem-solve - and see that none of us are truly alone in the struggle.

a bit of everything that I've been thinking about with school: there is currently so much fear involved in teaching right now, combating fear is done through being made uncomfortable, uncomfortable feelings with showcasing something I'm good at with the demo, the value of BAWP to develop professionally, what I want to take from my experience and the book club with me into the next school year to build and create towards liberation

This piece is about a strategy for teaching grammar and writing craft in bite-sized chunks that honor student agency and voice.

How do we keep on keepin' on in this beautiful, sacred, draining, etc. etc. etc. profession of education?