The Oaks Center for Educational Advancement

Under the Oaks

A shared space for the exploration of teaching and learning

Narrative as Professional Practice

Field Notes

Inviting educators to examine experience, elevate voice, and shape professional judgment through shared stories.

Shifting Observation and Understanding

From Reflection to Practice

Understanding deepens when reflection is taken up, tested against experience, and shared with others engaged in the work.

The Book That Found Its Way Back

Our Point of Focus

Years earlier, I had given that book to a student. She was quiet, reserved, careful with her words. In our English class, she rarely spoke. Then Robert Frost lit something in her.

Learning Beyond the Moment

Thoughts for This Moment

The Book That Found Its Way Back considers a complex teaching moment as an opportunity.

Educator Story Submissions

We welcome story-based submissions from teachers, mentors, and school leaders that reflect honestly on practice. We are interested in classroom moments, mentoring experiences, questions that linger, and accounts that examine how identity, context, and decision-making shape teaching and learning.

Submissions should be grounded in lived experience and written with care for students, colleagues, and communities. We are less interested in polished success stories than in thoughtful reflection that opens space for learning and conversation.

Student Story Submissions

We invite submissions from students, past and present, who wish to reflect on their learning experiences. We are interested in moments of growth, challenge, belonging, misalignment, or change, and in how relationships, identity, and classroom culture shaped those experiences.

Submissions may take the form of short essays, narratives, or reflective pieces. We value honesty, clarity, and care over polished presentation.

Editorial Note on Student Submissions

Student submissions are reviewed with particular care. We recognize the power imbalance that can exist between students and institutions, and we are committed to publishing student voices responsibly and ethically.

Identifying details may be edited or withheld. Our aim is to publish reflection that contributes to understanding teaching and learning as lived experience, while protecting the dignity and well-being of all involved.