Tier 1 Is Not Basic. It Is the Backbone of Everything We Do.
When schools see a spike in referrals, the instinct is often to look for more intervention. More pull-out support. More behavior plans. More counseling referrals. More Tier 2 and Tier…
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West Memphis teacher charged with felony after student calls him “bruh”
A comment from a middle school has ended with one Arkansas teacher arrested for aggravated assault in West Memphis, Arkansas. Tracy Matthews, 56, a teacher at Wonder Junior High School,…
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Building Empathic Classrooms: What We Gain from Peer Support Models
A Need to Belong My memories of being bullied in middle school and high school are still vivid. As an individual on the autism spectrum, the complexities of social relationships…
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Trailblazing for Liberation: How Jamial Black Is Reimagining Education as Justice Work
In a national moment where education is increasingly shaped by policy debates, cultural tensions, and systemic inequities, educators like Top 50 Educator, Jamial Black, are reframing the profession as more…
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The Objectification of Public Education
When I first entered the classroom at eighteen—as a long-term substitute, a vacancy, a body-to-fill-the-room; so I was hired, so I was told—I carried with me all the freshest and…
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Gratitude Tour: Libby Lang
Six years into my still-fledgling career, I began teaching at Durham Academy, a Pre-K to 12 independent school in North Carolina. It would be difficult to find anyone who represents…
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A gun came to my room, but it will not define my room
“When despair for the world grows in me,” writes Wendell Berry. “I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief.” This poem…
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When Behavior Is Survival: Understanding Trauma in the Classroom
More than meets the eye We’re sitting together, going over her English notes, and I can see the frustration building in her eyes. Before I can even finish my sentence, she bolts out of her chair, storms over, her voice trembling as she shouts, “I’m going to fail! I’m a failure. I’m never going to…
Keep readingPersonalized Book Recommendations Changed My Classroom Library. Here’s Why.
Walk into almost any school library and you’ll see the same thing… A small group of students browsing confidently. A much larger group hovering, unsure where to start. And a few who’ve already mentally checked out before they’ve even touched a book. What separates the engaged readers from everyone else? Often, it’s not ability. It’s…
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Truth, Courage, and the Power of Student Voice: The Transformative Work of Jessyca Mathews
For Jessyca Mathews, education has never been just about teaching literature or preparing students for exams. It has always been about something deeper: helping young people find their voice and use it to change the world. An English and AP African American Studies teacher at Carman-Ainsworth High School, Mathews has built a national reputation as…
Keep readingYou Won the Race”: A health class euphemism, reimagined
I generally dislike teacher stories marketed as “based on a true story.” They’re always cleaned up, sanded down, and weaponized for sentimentality. So here’s something that actually happened on Friday: exactly as it happened, with no moral pre-installed. I teach special education English in an urban high school in the Northeast. First period. A self-contained…
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Education Department to vacate D.C. headquarters as downsizing effort continues
The U.S. Department of Education announced plans to vacate its longtime headquarters in the Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ) building, marking one of the most visible steps yet in the Trump administration’s ongoing effort to scale back the agency. The Department said the LBJ building, which is located in downtown Washington, will be turned over to…
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Our school system is broken
I have worked for the New York City Department of Education since 2005. I began as a teaching assistant while in high school, became a teaching scholar in college, substitute taught for six years, and have now taught full-time as a special education teacher for the past eleven years. Through all these roles, one truth…
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Our children deserve a phone-free school day
Last year, I wrote to the Glendale Unified school board urging a bell-to-bell ban on smartphones. Since then, the landscape has shifted in ways that sharpen…
If We Don’t Teach Students How to Use A.I., We Teach Them How to Cheat
The first time a teacher spoke to me about their student’s use of A.I. in the classroom, they said, “The students are using A.I. to cheat!” My question…
The Morning Meeting Remix: What Happens When Someone Else Runs Your Routine
I Almost Missed It I had a parent meeting this morning. By the time I slipped back into the classroom, morning meeting was already underway — my support…
Gratitude Tour: Sheila Ray Cooper
Sheila Ray Cooper and I met in the first grade at Giffin Elementary School in South Knoxville, TN. She was Sheila Ray in those days and was one of a…
We should model failure, not just success
I am an educator who is also on the autism spectrum. Throw in a hearing impairment and learning disability, my teaching style is bound to be unique. I…
Data Meets Dyslexia: What AI Could Mean for Identification in Schools
The Growing Role of AI in Education “Artificial intelligence (AI) is going to become the future of education,” a colleague recently remarked in passing. As a current Dyslexia…