Starr Sackstein started her teaching career at Far Rockaway High School more than sixteen years ago, eager to make a difference. Quickly learning to connect with students, she was able to recognize the most important part of teaching: building relationships. Fostering relationships with students and peers to encourage community growth and a deeper understanding of personal contribution through reflection, she has continued to elevate her students by putting them at the center of the learning.
Currently, Sackstein is the Director of Humanities (business, English, library, reading, social studies, and world languages) in West Hempstead, New York. While in her first year of leadership, she completed her advanced leadership certification at SUNY New Paltz. Taking what she learned in classes and applying her classroom leadership to a team of teachers, Sackstein was able to start growing as a new school leader, building relationships and demonstrating the kind of leadership she would have liked from her own past administrators.
Prior to her current role, Sackstein was a Teacher Center teacher and ELA teacher at Long Island City High School in New York. She also spent nine years at World Journalism Preparatory School in Flushing, New York, as a high school English and journalism teacher where her students ran the multimedia news outlet WJPSnews.com. In 2011, the Dow Jones News Fund honored Starr as a Special Recognition Advisor, and in 2012, Education Update recognized her as an outstanding educator. In her current position, Sackstein has thrown out grades, teaching students that learning isn't about numbers but about the development of skills and the ability to articulate growth.
In 2012, Sackstein tackled National Board Certification in an effort to reflect on her practice and grow as an educational English facilitator. After a year of close examination of her work with students, she achieved the honor. She is also a certified Master Journalism Educator through the Journalism Education Association (JEA). Sackstein also served as the New York State Director to JEA from 2010-2016, helping advisors in New York enhance journalism programs.
She is the author of Teaching Mythology Exposed: Helping Teachers Create Visionary Classroom Perspective, Blogging for Educators, Teaching Students to Self-Assess: How Do I Help Students Grow as Learners?, The Power of Questioning: Opening Up the World of Student Inquiry, Hacking Assessment: 10 Ways to Go Gradeless in a Traditional Grades School, and Hacking Homework: 10 Strategies That Inspire Learning Outside the Classroom co-written with Connie Hamilton. Most recently, Starr has published From Teacher to Leader: Finding Your Way as a First-Time Leader Without Losing Your Mind (DBC), Peer Feedback in the Classroom: Empower Students to be the Experts with the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD). Sackstein has also contributed to compilation works in 2017 and 2018: Education Write Now edited by Jeff Zoul and Joe Mazza and What Connected Educators Do Differently with Routledge.
She blogs on Education Week Teacher at "Work in Progress," where she discusses all aspects of being a teacher and education reform. She made the Bammy Awards finals for Secondary High School Educator in 2014 and for blogging in 2015. At speaking engagements around the world, Starr speaks about blogging, journalism education, bring your own device, and throwing out grades, which was also highlighted in a recent TedxTalk entitled “A Recovering Perfectionist’s Journey to Give Up Grades.” In 2016, she was named one of ASCD's Emerging Leaders.
Balancing a busy career of writing and teaching with being Mom to thirteen-year-old Logan is a challenging adventure. Seeing the world through his eyes reminds her why education needs to change for every child.
Starr can be reached at mssackstein@gmail.com or via Twitter at @MsSackstein. She can also be found on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Starr-Sackstein-MJE/173509889399007.
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