Author: Patrick Harris II
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Oh, grief.
I only knew youTo beA line from someone else’s story A page from a bookI had only heardBut never got around to reading. Folks told meyou could feel thethe heaviness of the darkness and the warmth of lightEverything and nothingAt the same time. When I heard you were in townI knew how it would end.I’d…
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Behind The Scenes: I Finally Found a School to Call Home. Now People are Leaving.
Please click here to read my latest piece titled, “Many Eyes Are on the Teachers Who Leave. What About the Ones Who Stay?” on EdSurge. This is my first of four narratives pieces that will appear in Ed Surge. This year, I am a Voices of Change fellow with the publication company. Big shout out…
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For New Teachers – It’s Not Easy to Work Within Contract Hours
Over the weekend, I was sent a podcast clip of a group of educators discussing tips they had for new teachers. I appreciated the nuanced approach to the tired argument that new teachers need to learn to work in their “contracted hours”. This is all too familiar. When I entered the classroom in 2015, veteran…
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For the English Teachers Who Struggle with Writing
My name is Patrick and I’m an English Language Arts teacher that is insecure about his writing. Am I out here by myself? I fell in love with writing in the fourth grade. Hyped up from my trip to Blockbuster, gathering all the movies I could hold in my small hands. I knew I was…
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The 7 Foot Plant: A Tribute to my Grandmother
Mattie Mae Harris stands five feet five inches tall underneath a nearly seven feet tall house plant. The plant’s leaves are striped, some brush across the ceiling and hang downward, and some meet my grandmother face-to-face. It is bound together by rubber bands and broken broomsticks. The pot is a pale orange, round, and stained…
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The Spark Still Shines Five Years Later
Five years ago today, I was preparing to light a firecracker in front of a live audience. And not just an actual firecracker, but the spark inside of me. On July 31st, 2014 at the 2nd Annual Dinner of The Firecracker Foundation, I shared my story of surviving sexual trauma. In 2011, I graduated from…
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Common Sense Podcast to release its 40th and final Episode
To our loyal listeners and the rest of the world, At the beginning of the 2018-2019 school year, we set out on a mission to show the world that the experiences and voices of teachers mattered. And after several conversations, we took a leap of faith and launched Common Sense Podcast. Common Sense Podcast is…
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I went on a Date in Thailand
If you’re a particular man living in Asia there’s a high chance you’re logged into Grindr. Yikes, Grindr. The dating app that I’m hella embarrassed to tell my American friends I’m active on. Well, it’s hard to justify using an app that’s infamous for white men calling you Nigger when you deny them for dates…
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Everything I learned about storytelling came from my Mom
I grew up learning the art of storytelling from the center of my living room floor. While the TV played cartoons, the volume of my mother’s phone conversations blared a little louder. And while I tried not to listen to the contents of the conversations, I couldn’t help it. From my mother, I picked up…
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A Lasting Shadow
Who knew that my 25th cycle around the Earth would leave such a lasting shadow? I took a social media break for three weeks because I had reached rock bottom and looking at yall’s lives wasn’t making it any better. My goal on my break was to take full advantage of the silence that already…