My name is Jeff Waid. Before retiring in January, I taught English and drama for over twenty-five years in the Los Angeles Unified School District. I have a Master’s in Education and was a National Board Certified Teacher from 2002-2012. 

I’ve also served as a mentor teacher, a department chair, a union rep, and I’ve taught prospective teachers at California State University at Los Angeles Charter College of Education as a part-time faculty member. 

Before that, I did a series of sub jobs at some pretty posh private schools in L.A. and way before that, I even did a couple of summers at an arts camp back east. Along the way I went through a boatload of “how to teach” classes and books and articles and videos and professional developments. 

What I didn’t find in any of them was the truth about what my colleagues and I were experiencing in our classrooms and in our schools. This blog is about that truth and, I hope, yours.