We are so happy to introduce you to Ms. Rachel Sadler, our June Teacher of the Month. We first met Ms. Rachel—as the students call her—years ago when she signed on as a volunteer writing tutor with 826 Valencia. As a tutor, she was particularly dedicated to the Young Authors’ Book Projects, our most in-depth student publishing projects, for which we partner with one high school each spring to work for an entire semester on publishing a book.
Inspired by her experience tutoring juniors and seniors on their pieces for the books and working alongside student editors, Ms. Rachel went to the Stanford Teacher Education Program (STEP) and became a language arts teacher at San Francisco International High School. It was a no-brainer, then, to partner with Ms. Rachel on the 2013 Young Authors’ Book Project as she already knew what the project entailed and what it would mean for her students to become published authors.
San Francisco International High School is a school designed for students who are recent newcomers to the United States. Teaching English, let alone preparing students to write essays to be published, could have been daunting when several different languages were spoken in the classroom. But Ms. Rachel impressed all of us with her ability to inspire and support her students as they rapidly gained skills and confidence. She built the Young Authors’ Book Project into her curriculum seamlessly and kept her eighty students on track with scaffolding, flexibility, and motivational talks. She is organized, tireless, and creative. Ms. Rachel is a superhero teacher, and we are grateful for the opportunity to work with her.