Jamal Cooks
Ph.D. Specialty Area: Literacy Education
Present Position: I am an assistant professor at San Francisco State University in the College of Education in the Department of Secondary Education. I teach the majority of the reading courses (just like 402), the teaching culturally and linguistically diverse student population classes, and working with the middle level program.
Dissertation Topic: Building the expository writing skills of 9 grade social studies students writing across content areas writing workshops vs. online tutoring learning environments.
Prior to coming to the SOE: I was a 7th grade social studies teacher I was a director of an after school program (at the same-time) I was a coordinator of a Saturday school (at the same time)
What I Learned in the Program: I must admit that the training I received at U of M helped me understand the macro level of academia and how to navigate through the system and hopefully the tenure process. I am being told that I have to have a strong line of research, a great teaching record, and support of providing community service. However, if I did not have other interest outside of my job (i.e.coaching track), it would be difficult to handle the daily grind of being a professor. In fact, I get more respect than some of my colleagues because I still work with student. If I were to give one piece of advice to anyone leaving the program I would suggest to get a "balance" in life (between work and personal development) as early as possible because it will make their jobs more rewarding.
