.Best High School Teacher

Bill Pratt at Berkeley High School

It’s an all-too-common misconception that high school can either be
substantive or interesting — never both. But Bill Pratt is one
teacher who’s figured out how to do it right. “There’s a whole new way
of thinking about rigor,” he says. “I genuinely believe that the deep
ideas and the essential questions and dilemmas of any discipline can be
taught in a meaningful and accessible way to students of any level.”
Pratt, who has been teaching history in Berkeley High’s Communication
Arts and Sciences program for more than a decade, encourages his
students to understand history as a living, breathing thing by
assigning projects that engage a variety of different learning styles
and value critical thinking, creativity, and analysis over rote
memorization. So instead of asking kids to spit out as many facts and
dates as they possibly can on a multiple-choice test, he’ll assign an
illustrated analogy comparing the 1920s and the 1930s, or a debate
role-play about whether the United States should have dropped the
atomic bomb during World War II. What’s more, he’s managed the same
balancing act in his relationships with students, making himself
relatable and accessible — by staying late after school to help
them with projects, by keeping in touch with alumni though Facebook, by
burning CDs of his beloved Clash for particularly punk-obsessed pupils
— without sacrificing any of his command of the classroom. With
teachers like Pratt around, we’ll never have to choose between rigor
and relevance.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

East Bay Express E-edition East Bay Express E-edition
19,045FansLike
14,598FollowersFollow
61,790FollowersFollow
spot_img