Written by Sydney Spexarth, current 10th grade student at Sora
I’ve been a student at Sora Schools for a few months. I work with the teachers constantly, but I wanted to get to know them more. So, I sat down and interviewed Michael Granado, the Humanities Learning Expert. I asked him about what he typically does on a school day, but I also asked him about his past jobs and current projects he’s helping his students with.
What did you do before working at Sora?
Before Sora, Michael taught in various places for seven years. First, he was a T.A. (teacher’s assistant) at Armstrong State University in ancient history. After that, he taught introduction to ethics, American government, and AP American government at Savannah Christian Preparatory School. He then taught critical thinking at Strayer University. Lastly, he did 3 years at Savannah Technical College, teaching world and American history.
He found Sora through an advertisement. At the time, he was working as a hiring manager for a warehouse company, and he really wanted to get back into teaching. What stood out to him was Sora’s approach to education. In his brief stint as a teacher, he had seen what works and what does not, and he was skeptical about coming back to education because of the bureaucratic bloat and emphasis on everything but actual learning. After meeting with Garrett, Wesley, and Indra (Sora’s leaders), he said, “it was love at first sight!”
What’s a day at Sora look like for you?
Michael starts his morning around 8, and gets caffeine in the form of energy drinks. He then checks his messages, emails, and google calendar for the schedule. Outside of meetings, he usually is preparing for workshops or individual meetings. He is constantly reading, researching, and looking at pages of students’ work to give feedback and help. Sometimes, that means reading along with students in their books. Other times, he’s critiquing papers and reports students write for their projects. When he is not meeting with students, he has faculty meetings somewhere in between. He likes to pop into some clubs every once in a while, like Fantasy Book Club, where he tries to keep up with what they are reading.
Currently, Michael is reading several history/fiction books with multiple students. Most of the students are commenting on these via short written reports. Additionally, he has a student working on an exploration of the United States healthcare system, one who is writing her own book, and another who is writing an article on the faculty of Sora (me!).
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