My first year of teaching was terrible. I will always remember a moment where I watched my students in disbelief as if it was an out-of-body experience. Paper balls flew back and forth and one particularly defiant child stood on top of his desk to do his best Michael Jackson impression. I had big dreams of leading […]
Ruben Abrahams Brosbe
Ruben Brosbe is a former elementary school teacher. He currently facilitates professional learning for Teaching Lab, Ramopo for Children, and the Center for Racial Justice in Educaton. He is passionate about social justice oriented project based learning, and finds that young people make the best activists. He is a co-founder of Teach Resistance, an online community for social justice and anti-bias elementary educators. He is also the founder and host of Teachable Moments, a live storytelling event featuring stories by former and current educators.
Posted inFeatured, Instructional Strategies, Literacy
"I’m an N": Building Reading Identities in a Leveled Text Classroom
When I was young, I read voraciously. I remember my parents catching me awake after my bedtime, with a flashlight and a Matt Christopher book under the covers. As an early reader, I was obsessed with the Cam Jansen series by David A. Adler. I would take out a stack from the library and go […]
Posted inClassroom Management, Featured
Conquering Teacher Home Visits with Three Simple Questions
It’s been three years since I’ve started my second stint in the classroom and without a doubt my favorite new practice as a teacher is home visits. Home visits create an opportunity for home-school collaboration that is hard to find any other way. Home visits aren’t a new practice, but they’re gaining more attention, and […]
Posted inClassroom Management, Featured, Instructional Strategies
Ask Three Before Me: Encouraging Student Voice and Independence
I’m lucky to be married to a brilliant early childhood educator. But I’m not just bragging. I share this, because her perspective on teaching really young students we have has given me a lot of insights to my own work with third graders. One thing that has stayed with me is the way my wife […]
Posted inFeatured, Series, Teacher Leaders
How to Own the Leadership of Your Classroom: Investing Others
This post is the second in a series on classroom-centered teacher leadership. The first part on crafting a vision is here. It’s estimated that teachers are responsible from 1,500 to 3,000 nontrivial decisions every day. And yet, many of us don’t feel in control of our classrooms. Depending on the school we may have some […]
Posted inElementary School, Featured, Instructional Strategies, Kindergarten, Series, Teacher Leaders
How to Own the Leadership of Your Classroom: Craft a Vision
It’s no secret that teacher burnout is a problem. A commonly cited statistic is that as many as half of teachers leave the profession within their first five years. As retention of teachers gains attention in policy circles, teacher leadership has emerged as one possible solution. Generally teacher leadership means an opportunity to extend a […]
Posted inCurrent Events in Education, Featured, High School, Social Justice
White Educators: Do You Recognize State Trooper Encinia?
[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”] I watched the Sandra Bland dash cam video last night. I knew the grim ending to the story before I even clicked play on my iPhone, but the video hit me […]
Posted inCurrent Events in Education, Featured, Instruction & Curriculum
A Year of Third-Grade Activism
[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”] My sixth year of teaching is behind me now, and like every year, I’m thinking about what to celebrate and where I need to grow next year. Each day I come home from […]