HOT TOPICS
This year in mid-May, approximately 1.8 billion Muslims worldwide will be observing the holy month of Ramadan. Ramadan is the ninth month of the lunar Islamic calendar, which begins the morning after sighting the last sliver of a crescent moon before a new moon and lasts for 30 days. Read more here...
My close friend and long-time colleague, Michelle, died three weeks ago. She was only forty years old. We shared thousands and thousands of students together over the past eighteen years. Her classroom is on the same floor as mine, just around the corner. We coached speech and debate together in our early twenties, created an AVID program together, and both started teaching AP classes to seniors around the same time.. Read more here.
As a teacher and American citizen, it is difficult to discern what values we stand for as a nation today. It seems that our government has blurred the lines between right and wrong, truth and falsehood, equality and discrimination, and honesty and scandal. To read more, click here.
Yesterday evening, Donald Glover (aka Childish Gambino) debuted a new video entitled, “This is America” and for the past 24 hours, I’ve been entranced with the layers of symbolism in this video dealing with racism, violence, gun control, etc…Read more.
FEATURED CATEGORIES
LATEST AND GREATEST
The Politics and Pedagogy of Immigration Policy
The national debate over the Trump Administration policy of separating children from their parents at the southern border has reached a fever pitch. Images and audio of crying children, traumatized by the removal of their [...]
The Quest for the “Perfect” World Literature Book
I’ve been on summer break for almost three weeks. I’ve done a lot in that time: visited my parents, worked on a county curriculum review, started reading some professional development books, etc. There is still [...]
Juneteenth: 4 Books To Use With Your Students
Juneteenth (On My Own Holidays) June 19th, 1865, began as another hot day in Texas. African American slaves worked in fields, in barns, and in the homes of the white people who owned them. Then [...]
2018: Reflections on a School Year
It’s the Saturday after the last day of school for teachers. I am turning 58 today. I just completed my 34th year as a social studies teacher. Tomorrow is Father’s Day. Looking back over the [...]
Home Visits: Building A Classroom Family in Room 18
Last summer, I was given the opportunity to attend an educators’ conference focused on building positive climate and culture in schools. A variety of break-out sessions were offered, addressing topics including engagement, retention, cultural competency, [...]
School Meal Programs: How can we be more effective?
Due to the high number of students receiving their nutritional intake from school meal programs, the U.S. Congress passed the 2010 Healthy, Hunger-free Kids Act. The act increased school lunch funding by $0.06 per lunch [...]
Great Teachers Eat Apples: Building Relationships
Every year as school days come to a close and summer sets in, I find myself sitting at my teacher desk sifting through tokens of gratitude from students. From flowers and lotions to candies and [...]
The High Expectations Myth
The high expectations myth is a pernicious, insidious mantra. It is the notion that if I, as a teacher, say and believe I hold high expectations, it is magically true. Examining actual teaching practices is [...]
Teachers: Partners in Suicide Prevention
On Friday morning, I turned on my computer and awoke to horrible news, that the beloved writer, chef, television persona, and person, Anthony Bourdain, had died of an apparent suicide. Coming just days after the [...]
The Types of Teachers at Professional Development Meetings
There are two types of professional development situations teachers find themselves in. There is the type that excites us and motivates us to be better teachers. The type where you immediately log in to Pinterest [...]
Rat Infestations, Permanent Voice Damage, & Grieving In the Classroom : Reflections on the Absolute WORST YEAR of My Teaching Career
This has been the absolute worst year of my teaching career. By far . . . It started too early—much too early. Our teacher meetings began on August 14th. Whatever, you may ask fellow teachers, [...]
I Wish My Teacher Knew: Beneath the Surface
In April of 2015, Colorado teacher Kyle Schwartz facilitated a writing activity in her third-grade classroom she called “I Wish My Teacher Knew.” Schwartz prompted students to complete the sentence “I wish my teacher knew…” [...]
Our Top Posts: