Every new school year brings new beginnings and this year Lincoln welcomes many new teachers, one of them being Mrs. Cohen! Cohen is teaching Latino Literature and yearbook this year. As some Lincoln returners may know, those courses were perviously taught by Mr. Christian, but since he has moved to Hoover Middle School as an assistant principal, a new teacher must take on the role. 

Lion Tales talked to Mrs.Cohen about any pressure she might feel, she said, “I don’t feel pressure to fill his shoes. I do feel pressured to teach the class in an authentic way that is consistent with how it was set up.” Although Cohen is new to Lincoln that doesn’t mean this is her first rodeo, she has taught for 15 years and has advised yearbook before and is familiar with the subject matter in Latino Literature. Cohen said “Latino Lit just sounded really exciting to me. I was teaching on the East Side for many years and most of my students were Latinx and so we were always talking about equity and how do we help kids move through society educationally and then become active community members. So it sounded like a really good fit.” 

As for yearbook, it’s too early in the year to know the vision for this year’s Monarch, but the class is developing a theme and, “everyone is really excited to make a great book,” said Cohen. 

Taking a deeper look into Mrs. Cohen herself, Lion Tales found that she’s quite the traveler. Cohen has taught all over the Bay Area in cities like San Francisco, Berkeley, Petaluma and Marin County. Cohen has also traveled to places beyond the Bay such as Peru, Thailand, Costa Rica, Mexico, Canada, Europe, Vietnam, Israel, Barbados. Cohen said, “My parents loved traveling so they would take us places and then before I was married and had kids I would just travel by myself.”

Be sure to make Mrs. Cohen feel at home here at Lincoln!