I had the good fortune of teaching at James Logan High School for 33 years. Logan is a huge public high school in Union City, a diverse suburb of the San Francisco Bay Area. It was a great place to teach social studies!
Logan students come from all over the globe. Some arrived recently, others are longtime Californians. Their varied backgrounds and experiences made for a lively social science classroom. You can hear me talk more about my Logan kids and teaching philosophy in a video interview I gave as the 2015-2016 New Haven Unified School District’s Teacher of the Year.
While at Logan, I benefited from collaborating with a talented group of colleagues. We worked on teams designing curriculum for our courses. I had lots of opportunities for professional growth, whether it was integrating technology into our classrooms or coaching new teachers.
How lucky I was to have met my teaching partner and partner in life at Logan. My Marilyn was Logan’s All Star English teacher, and we taught an integrated English-history core for over 25 years. We retired together in June of 2017. We’ve been happily chasing grandchildren since.
Finally, a special thanks to my dear daughter and educator, Tamiko Forrest, and Tim Wharton, friend and former Logan colleague. Their support and suggestions for A Veteran Teacher’s Lessons have been invaluable.
Dave Forrest - 2018