Have you signed up for The Educator’s Room Daily Newsletter? Click here and support independent journalism! Testing Frenzy Déjà Vu In recent news, NAEP scores fell dramatically due to COVID-19’s impact on learning. Every media outlet has a take on the situation, and everybody seems concerned. The Secretary of Education said recently that we all need to “raise the bar and […]
Thomas Courtney
Thomas Courtney is a senior policy fellow with Teach Plus, a member of Edsource's Advisory Committee, and author of many articles on educational curriculum and policy. He is also a fifth-grade teacher, guide teacher, and father of a child at a Title 1 school in southeast San Diego.
Teaching Central America Week Is October 3rd-October 9th
Here’s Why You Don’t Want to Miss It And How to Get Started Have you signed up for The Educator’s Room Daily Newsletter? Click here and support independent journalism! Across the USA, it’s National Hispanic Heritage Month. Here in San Diego, my class and I are celebrating the contributions of great artists and courageous leaders like […]
A Guide Teacher’s Guide to Getting Hired
Have you signed up for The Educator’s Room Daily Newsletter? Click here and support independent journalism! National headlines declare a shortage of teachers. But student teachers and their guide teachers know that in some parts of the US getting your foot in the door after credentialing is through is still as tough as ever . […]
It’s Time for Teachers to Stop Blaming Ourselves
Have you signed up for The Educator’s Room Daily Newsletter? Click here and support independent journalism! Every profession has its detractors. Society can find fault with just about anyone doing their job, except maybe a baker. Never heard a bad thing about a baker. When it comes to teaching, George Bernard Shaw once famously said […]
Mr. Courtney’s Publicly Funded Snake Handling Divinity School
Have you signed up for The Educator’s Room Daily Newsletter? Click here and support independent journalism! For 23 years, I have been a public school teacher. Yet, never once have I shared my religious affiliation nor religious beliefs with my class, nor with a single student for that matter. With very rare exceptions, I never […]
Red Light! It’s Time to Take Digital Literacy Seriously
Have you signed up for The Educator’s Room Daily Newsletter? Click here and support independent journalism! Several months ago, my fifth-grade class asked me to play Red Light, Green Light. Not typically a game my fifth graders request, it came as a surprise. Later that week I watched the first episode of a very grown-up […]
Teach to the Rest: Three More Ways We Can Use the Pandemic to Transform Schools For the Better- Part 2
By Thomas Courtney Last year, I wrote about the opportunity we had to change the very way in which our schools operated. Twenty years ago, teaching to the test transformed our educational system. To many, the pandemic was simply the last piece of the puzzle that revealed the picture of what our schools had become. […]
Assessing Your School’s Social Emotional Learning Practice
Social and emotional learning is abuzz in educational circles now at long last. One might even say it’s a call to action, one that is long overdue in our schools.