My love affair with reading began underneath the dining room table. It was something I passionately desired to do, and my first glimmer of this new realm was in Kindergarten. There was some kind of power behind the flashcards Ms. Crowning was holding up and I had to have it. I attended Kindergarten in 1985 […]
Elena Heglund
What Do the Green Shoe Laces Mean in Educational Reform?
On Long Island in the summer of 2013, neon green laces started flying off the shelves. They became the symbol of the anti-high stakes testing revolution. This symbol has been embraced by thousands of educators, parents and students in an effort to stop bad tests from hurting children, the mission of a group called Lace […]
The Current State of Education in New York: "The Hunger Games" (Part 3)
The Hunger Games series is powerful as an authentic text due to its messages of speaking out when something is wrong, and of fighting back against the bully. This is a tenet that many teachers not only preach, but practice in their classrooms. Choose to do the right thing. Choose to speak out. Choose to […]
The State of Education in New York: "The Hunger Games" (Part 2)
In The Hunger Games Katniss becomes an unwitting symbol of the revolution when she uses the nightlock berries as a strategy for survival. She takes the power out of the hands of the Capitol and the Gamemakers. Throughout the next two books, the reader discovers that a revolution was brewing the entire time, a revolution […]
The State of Education in New York: "The Hunger Games" (Part 1)
In this first of a 3-part series, the education policies of the State of New York and the country take on whole new meaning in light of The Hunger Games… In The Hunger Games, the Capitol rules. In education, “The State” rules. In The Hunger Games, the Capitol cuts off the food supply to the […]