About the Author
Stephen Lazar is a National Board Certified Social Studies teacher at the Academy for Young Writers in Brooklyn, NY, and works with teachers throughout New York to support inquiry-based instruction and project-based learning. He previously taught at the Bronx Lab School (where he was Department Chair, Grade Team Leader, Instructional Coach, Union Chapter Leader, Tech Guy) and at Hayfield High School in Fairfax County, VA. He is on the Executive Board of ATSS/UFT and is a member of the Teacher Leader Network.
Published Writing
- In Creating Successful Schools, One Size Does Not Fit All - New York Times School Book (January 2012)
- “Septima Clark: Organizing for Positive Freedom” - The New Black History, edited by Manning Marable and Elizabeth Hinton (2011)
- “If I Don’t Grade My Students’ Regents Exams, Who Will?“ - New York Times School Book (November 2011)
- “Teaching History Through Inquiry” – Education Week Teacher (November 2011)
- Archive on Gotham School
About the Blog
I had a great but short blogging run my first year teaching in Virginia. I was a very idealistic, young progressive teacher at a very traditional large public high school with over 200 teachers. I started my blog because I wanted to blog with students and I thought it would be hypocritical of me not to do the same myself. I continued because I was desperate for a community of teachers eager to change education for the 21st century. Blogging allowed me to connect with these teachers all around the world.
After a year of sporadic blogging while pursuing my master’s, I took a job teaching Social Studies at a new progressive public school in NYC, the Bronx Lab School. I joined a staff of 20 dedicated, motivated, passionate, and open minded teachers, and instantly found the community I didn’t have in Virginia. I stopped blogging towards the end of my first year at Bronx Lab because I no longer needed a separate community outside of my school, and I couldn’t quite figure out to what extent the lessons of the edublogs I was reading, most of which seemed to address teachers of middle and upper middle class students, applied to the world in which I found myself. I was also working five times harder due to my students’ greater needs and the immense work necessary to build a new school and just didn’t have the time.
Four years later, I’d grown tremendously as a teacher and a leader, adding my English and National Board Social Studies certifications, and becoming Department Chair, an instructional coach, and my school’s union chapter leader. I again found myelf in search of a new community of educators, not because I didn’t have one, but because I want a larger one and have figured out my situation well enough to be able to take lessons from anywhere. So I started writing again in early 2010.
Most posts on this blog fall into one of two categories:
- Reflections on my planning and teaching of English and Social Studies
- Thoughts on school reform and educational policy in the US and NYC through the eyes of a union rep who does not always agree with my union, but strongly believes in the continued importance of teacher’s unions in public education.
Welcome to Outside the Cave 2.0.
Part of the header image is borrowed and used under Creative Commons license.
The opinions and views expressed on this site are solely those of the author and in no way express or represent the opinions of my school, its administration, or the New York City Department of Education.
