Understanding the legality and process of recent teacher strikes is a daunting task. As a part of the public sector, education protocol is governed by statutory and case law. Since primary control of the public education system is relegated to individual states, school law differs from state to state. This includes laws about teacher unions […]
Aimee Cribbs
Dr. Aimee Cribbs has twenty years of elementary classroom experience in Georgia's Title One schools. She's taught in a diverse, urban setting and a small rural system. She left the elementary classroom in 2017 to pursue a career in post-secondary education. She now serves as an Assistant Professor of Education at Dalton State College in Dalton, Georgia. She is an advocate for teachers, who she believes have the single most important job in the world.
Dear TER Readers and Educators: Let’s Change the World
Dear TER Readers and Educators, I’m not asking for much, just your help changing the world. It may sound like an overstatement, but I wholeheartedly believe that improving the American education system is the only path to lasting, meaningful change in all areas of society and citizenship. I also wholeheartedly believe that the educators in […]
Blueprint for Reform: Building the Foundation
Ever since the 2002 reauthorization of ESEA—otherwise known as No Child Left Behind—a day doesn’t pass without talk of education reform. The media tell us our schools are failing students, our teachers are exhausted, and our parents are dissatisfied.  As much as we can agree that our nation’s schools are struggling, it is not as […]
A Teacher’s Gratitude
I am a teacher. I give thanks for dry erase markers that work and pre-sharpened pencils, for chocolate and caffeine. I meet canceled meetings, bathroom breaks and snow days with gratitude and I am thankful for forgotten fidget spinners and silly bands that’ve come and gone, thankful for completed paperwork, planned fire drills, and a […]
Response To Intervention: One Teacher’s Story
A decade ago, I was the first classroom teacher at my elementary school to complete a round of RTI. The counselor, principal and I went into the process with confusion, determined to get a struggling third-grade student the help she needed. Since those early RTI days, I’ve provided tier II and III interventions and watched […]
Teachers Talk about RTI: The Educator’s Room Survey Results
RTI – Response to Intervention – has made its way to the top of the list of most commonly used education acronyms. Â Since changes to policy language in the 2004 Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA), the Response to Intervention framework has emerged as the favored way to identify students with learning disabilities. Â After a decade […]
Dear Administrators: Let’s Not Make Meetings Suck
It’s 3:30 pm and all of the students have finally cleared campus. You start to gather your belongings to do some grading when the dreaded voice on the intercom comes on. “Faculty and staff our faculty meeting will start promptly at 3:45 pm. Please do not be late as we expect to go until 5:00 […]
Positive Reinforcement: When Do We Want It? NOW
While I realize that effective classroom management is essential to effective teaching and learning, I sometimes worry that we educators over-do it. Are we failing to inspire a basic desire to do the right thing? Do we really need to hand out prizes for making it to school every day and not acting like an […]