Most Americans only know Mandy Manning, the 2018 National Teacher of the Year, by their own knee-jerk reaction to the State Teachers of the Year Award Ceremony at the White House and, of course, the political fallout that occurred thereafter. She's a darling to those on the left, adorning her formal, floral black dress with [...]
Isaiah, my second son, joined the world at 5:25a on May 4, 2018. In between the midst of nurse and specialist checkups, I had a second to look out the window overlooking a beautiful river-laden landscape, and I remember the article I wrote after my first son joined our family. And how I continue to [...]
Welcome to 2018, where schools are permitted to hold pep rallies for students to "get them excited" about standardized tests (like that ever worked!?), but if a teacher makes his students - 95% of whom are free and reduced lunch - pancakes during the tests, that leads to him being fired. Seriously. This isn't an [...]
AN ACT DECLARING APRIL "THE WORST MONTH TO TEACH" Be it enacted by The Educator's Room Readers and Writers: Whereas, by now, students and teachers have shared on average 130 classroom days together; Whereas teachers have hit the "survival mode button" more times than Staples customers have hit the "That Was Easy" button; Whereas students [...]
Teachers know what perfect storms in our profession look like. When you're a teacher, the colloquialism "when it rains it pours" just isn't enough. When it rains, we feel like we're antediluvian Noah - minus the ark. Often, the only way out of the flood is the feeling after a great lesson has seen its [...]