To my fellow teachers: Stop what you’re doing. Whatever it is, stop. Following up with families whose kids aren’t joining your Zoom calls, providing feedback to students’ work, watching a webinar on Social Emotional Learning, or anti-racist teaching practices, reviewing your lessons and tasks for the coming days… I know. It is all very, very [...]
Imagine walking into your classroom and seeing something completely different. Every child has been fed, is well-rested, and wearing clean clothes. Your classroom is stocked with all the materials you and your students need. As you move through your day there is plenty of time for art, music, science, and history. There is no standardized [...]
I was walking with a teacher friend this weekend and discussing the uncertainty of the next school year. “I want to sit on the rug with all of my students on the first day of school,” I said. “I want to read our first day of school read aloud.” The image practically brought tears to [...]
A Wake Up Call for White People The past two weeks have been a time of widespread racial awakening for many white people, including teachers. I have had several friends say to me, “I feel terrible for not doing more earlier.” I am personally very familiar with this feeling of shame. Although I’ve been lucky [...]
Part I: Mental Health Support for Educators On March 15th, Mayor de Blasio announced that non-essential businesses and schools in New York City would close. The past month has been surreal, challenging, inspiring, overwhelming as I’ve tried to adapt to remote learning along with 75,000 other adults and more than one million children At some [...]