Teaching the Teachers

This cover story for SFSU State Magazine on educating STEM educators was a homecoming for me: I completed the graduate program for teacher education at SF State, earned my credential, and taught high school in the city before life led me another way. Talking to these young teachers - and their students, and their mentors - reminded me of the passion, commitment, and hard work it takes to do the job, and the great personal and societal rewards that spring from it.

Sequoia High School science teacher Donna Dela Calzada (B.A., ’06), is gleeful about the video of her mother’s polyp-removal surgery. “It’s pretty epic,” she chuckles, swiping through her iPhone to find it. Ms. D., as her students call her, showed the pulsating globules to all five of her Redwood City classes, tailoring the lesson to each group. Her biology students learned about cell mutation, and for her biotech students, she focused on tools and techniques. “They loved it and hated it — all at the same time,” she says.  Read More