Jay Wamsted

Jay Wamsted has taught math at Benjamin E. Mays High School in southwest Atlanta for fourteen years. His writing has been featured in various journals and magazines, including "Harvard Educational Review," "Mathematics Teacher" and "Sojourners." He can be found online at "The Southeast Review," "Under the Sun" and the "TEDx" YouTube channel, where you can watch his 2017 talk “Eating the Elephant: Ending Racism & the Magic of Trust.” He and his wife have four young children, and he rides his bicycle to and from work just about every day. You can contact him on Twitter @JayWamsted or by email, wamsted@gmail.com.

Posts By Jay Wamsted

LGBTQ

Learning Students' Names Is the Most Important Thing Teachers Do the First Week of School

On the first day of August, I began my 17th year of teaching. I spent the whole previous week preparing my classroom, crammed as much fun as possible into the weekend, and slept badly last night in...

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Teaching

It Didn't Take Long for My Students to Ask About the Buffalo Shooting

It didn’t take long for them to ask. Just a little bit of downtime and a student approached. “Mr. Wamsted, did you hear about the shooting in Buffalo?” All around the country, teachers went to school...

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COVID-19

We Owe It to Our Students to Do Some Racial Justice Homework This Summer

This has been the longest year of my teaching career. Not literally, of course. Like many of you, I’ve worked about 200 days since last August, just as I do every year. Every educator, however, knows...

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Teaching

A Teacher's Power to Stop Violence Is Rooted in Relationships

During my 15 years of teaching, I have broken up many fights. I have been hit in the ear so hard that it rang me to sleep later that night; I have been smacked in the face and watched my glasses spin...

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COVID-19

Teachers, I Hate Feedback as Much as You, but Sometimes We Need to Hear It

Once, many years ago, I was arguing with a colleague. I have no idea what we were arguing about. I am sure, however, that I was as much to blame as she, if not more so. We were having a hard time...

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anti-racism

We're Not Even Close To Realizing Dr. King's Dream

Two years ago I was fortunate enough to attend a showing of “Hamilton” in my hometown of Atlanta. A huge group from Atlanta Public Schools trooped into the Fox Theater on the second night of the...

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