In the last sixty days, the world has exploded into the people who believe schools should start back immediately and the ones who say that during a pandemic schools can wait and at most continue virtually. There have been ferocious Facebook battles between both sides on social media and impassioned pleas in virtual school board […]
Posted inDo The Work
Is it Time to Kill Mockingbird and Embrace Mercy?
Is it Time to Kill Mockingbird? Until recently, To Kill A Mockingbird was one of few classics I actually liked. I’ve usually pushed back against the canon, but I could get behind a story about a precocious young tomboy who helps her father fight against racial injustice. But, as I read it once again with […]
Posted inHow to Fix Education
The System is Broken But Are We Ready to Fix it?
I cannot count the number of times I have heard “now is the time to reimagine education!” in the last six months. While the majority of people who voice this sentiment are referring to better delivery of online instruction or disrupting our current teaching practices, I think we are missing the crux of our problems […]
Posted inTeacher Self Care
Smile for the Camera: Adjusting to the New “Normal” in a COVID-19 Classroom
This year, teaching is lonely. Like many other districts across the country, we are teaching and learning online for the foreseeable future. I desperately want to be back in person with my students, but our national leadership is more concerned with political gain than American life. Wearing a mask is a political statement, cases aren’t […]
Posted inHow to Fix Education
Poker and Passion: An Education to Live For
“So, floating and bluffing are pretty much the same thing.” My ears perked up in surprise that my wife was eavesdropping on world-renown poker player, Phil Ivey. She continued, “You float to bluff and bluff to float. Isn’t he talking in circles?” Although dumbfounded that my wife was listening while I watched Phil Ivey’s MasterClass, […]
Posted inMental Health
Why Grieve For Someone Who Do Not Know: A Teacher’s Edition
After a long day of online tutoring, I took a brain break and began skimming my Twitter feed mindlessly. Tweet after tweet flooded the screen posts announcing the untimely passing of Chadwick Boseman, the amazing actor who brought to life Thurgood Marshall, Jackie Robinson, and my favorite – T’Challa -The Black Panther. I sat there […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
COVID-19 Has Made Me Rethink My Instruction: 5 Online Tools to Use in Language Arts Classes
We’re a week away from returning to in-person teaching for the new school year and the obvious anxieties and fear about being back at school, where the spread of COVID-19 feels inevitable and is on everyone’s minds. This year, teaching will take on new challenges and risks, and no amount of mental preparation will make […]
Posted inCurrent Events in Education
Teachers are Once Again Being Targeted by the Highest Office
It wasn’t enough that teachers were encouraged to go back to their classrooms during the height of the pandemic. It wasn’t enough that we were deemed essential workers to further a political agenda. And it wasn’t enough that our Secretary of Education, Betsy Devos, pushed schools to reopen while continuing to provide absolutely zero leadership […]