JAMAL COOKS
Portrait of a Volunteer
Jamal Cooks currently serves as assistant professor at San Francisco State University in the College of Education in the Department of Secondary Education. He teaches reading courses, teaches culturally and linguistically diverse student population classes, and works with the middle level program.
Prior to coming his coming to SFSU, Cooks concurrently served as a 7th grade social studies teacher, directed an after school program, and was a coordinator of a Saturday school.
What motivated you to volunteer for NCTE service?
I started working with NCTE as a graduate student in 1995 at the University of Michigan. I immediately met people like Carol Lee, Kris Gutierrez, and Peter Smagorinsky who illustrated the importance of working within NCTE. They each talked to me about their careers and how NCTE played a role in their development. I wanted to become part of something that was going to assist in my development professionally and academically.
What has kept you interested in volunteering your time over the years?
NCTE has kept a strong commitment to exploring ways to connect theory and practice. I believe that NCTE values the opinion of teachers, administrators, and researchers equally in educational conversations. I believe by educators from across the board working together that this is the only way that we will be able to find solutions to better build language arts and literacy skills of children.
What does your current role entail?
I am a member of the Middle Level Steering Committee, an NCTE Co-Sponsored Speaker volunteer, a recent Cultivating New Voices Fellow for 2004-2006, and, in the past, co-author of a column in Voices from the Middle. I was also Assistant Coordinator for the local committee of the 2003 NCTE Annual Conference and have served as a member of the Rainbow Strand for the NCTE Annual Conference.
What key roles have you played and what did you find most satisfying in carrying them out?
I really enjoyed working with the local committee for the 2003 Conference. I was able to learn so much about the workings of NCTE on the business and organizational side that I not previously exposed to prior to working on the committee.
What satisfactions do you derive from volunteering?
I have an opportunity to meet educators who are interested in educating students. I enjoy talking to teachers and researchers from across the country that are constantly looking for new ways to improve the teaching and learning of adolescents. I have maintained relationships with many people I have met through NCTE.
Why would you recommend volunteering to another NCTE member?
By participating in NCTE, a member will be able to grow and develop professionally, socially, and academically.
How or has your affiliation with NCTE improved your professional development and career?
I have an automatic network of colleagues that I can contact to ask questions, to get advice, or to just talk about life as an educator and the challenges we face on a regular basis.
Do you have a favorite NCTE publication?
Voices from the Middle. I think that middle level education is usually marginalized in conversations about teaching and learning. Voices from the Middle discusses topics that are vitally important in the lives of adolescents.
What is the one book, article, or professional development experience you would recommend to other educators?
Any educator dealing with literacy development, which is all teachers, should become a viable, committed, and active member of NCTE. The annual conferences will have educators from different walks of life return to their classroom revitalized and ready to work.
How has being part of an educational community like NCTE improved your abilities as a teacher and as a leader?
NCTE allowed me to learn from various people from across the country what is good teaching and learning for students. NCTE has allowed me to move within the organization at my own pace while continually providing opportunities to improve my abilities as a teacher and a leader. I appreciate being a member of NCTE!!!
For more information about volunteering with NCTE, please visit www.ncte.org/about/over/vol.
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