Christopher Mah

Christopher Mah is a first-year English teacher in the Minneapolis Public School District and member of Educators for Excellence-Minnesota. He blogs at Real Talk EDU.

Posts By Christopher Mah

U.S. Department of Education

School Districts Just Like Mine Are Balancing Budgets on the Backs of Kids

At 10:00 a.m. last Wednesday, students and educators across the country—including those at the school in which I teach—walked out of their buildings and observed 17 minutes of silence, one for each...

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Poverty

Here's What a Win in My Classroom Looks Like and It's Not What You Think

Malia had failed my ninth-grade English class for three consecutive quarters. She hadn’t come close to passing once. It wasn’t for lack of ability; her writing was far from polished, but it had...

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student achievement

Every Teacher Tried to Get Him on Track But Only This Student Knew Exactly What He Needed

During the first seven months of this school year, I struggled to find a way to motivate a ninth-grade student whom I’ll call Ameer. Ameer is a naturally curious, bright and charismatic young man...

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bias

Our Political Leaders Might Be Sleep But My Students Are Woke

Leaders within our new administration seem to be embracing a revisionist narrative of our country’s tortured history with race that is at best uninformed, and at worst, malicious. Take, for instance,...

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Achievement Gap

I'm Trying to Be an Ally to My Black and Brown Students

When I interviewed for my current job teaching ninth- and 10th-grade English in the Minneapolis Public Schools, I was asked this question: How would I respond to a Black or Brown student telling me...

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Achievement Gap

Because I Was Successful at Everything Else I Thought I Would Be Good at Teaching, Too. I Was Wrong.

In October of my first year of teaching, my wife sent me a blog post written by Tom Rademacher, the 2014 Minnesota Teacher of the Year. In it, he wrote, “There’s no better sign that things are going...

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