During this episode, Franchesca Warren talks with Vivette Dukes- a NYC teacher about her experiences with being homeless while teaching. The number of homeless students in U.S. has doubled since before the recession. The number of homeless children in public schools has doubled since before the recession, reaching a record national total of 1.36 million in […]
Posted inCurrent Events in Education
2016 Governor Races: An Education Focus
With the heated debate about which presidential candidate to vote for (or to not vote in general), Americans aren’t spending the same efforts when considering local elections. Twelve states will be electing governors: Delaware, Indiana, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, Washington, and West Virginia. As of September 7, 2016, […]
Posted inOpinion
Why We Need to Vote Down Ballot
I’m just as overwhelmed by the 2016 presidential election as any of the rest of our readers. The problem is we’ve already made up our minds – so we’re ready to vote and move on. According to Rasmussen, less than 2% of Americans are undecided on whom to vote for in this nearly infinitely long and […]
Posted inCommon Core
We Need our Educators Now More than Ever
We desperately need dedicated educators willing to build a career around serving today’s learners and today’s communities-our tomorrow depends on it. Under the guise of “reform”, public education and teaching have been under a years-long attack driven by private interests in collusion with policymakers looking to profit from and gain control of a private education […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
How Response Notebooks Differ From Reading Logs
When I moved from teaching high school to teaching 8th grade English three years ago, I was introduced to an independent reading requirement: each student would read one book of their own choosing each quarter. How we chose to implement this requirement was up to the teacher, but each student had to produce a product […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Are SPED Teachers Being Wells Fargoed? How Special Education Resembles the Wells Fargo Scandal
Cross-Posted at maribeeappletree Those that handle our funds have a fiduciary duty to properly handle our hard-earned money, right? Recently our faith was shaken. In order to keep their $12 per hour jobs, low level Wells Fargo employees opened fraudulent bank and credit card accounts in their customers’ names. Top executives pushed managers to […]
Posted inTeacher Burnout
Stress and Mess: Deliberate Practice and Professional Obligation — Part II
In Part I of this collaboration, some of the sources of teacher stress are described. The growing obligations, the expanding roles, the duties assigned to/taken on by/falling into the laps of teachers are growing. At the same time, respect for the profession and the people committed to it needs to be renewed and reinforced. Here […]
Posted inOpinion
Homeschooling: Making Education Natural Again
This year has been one of change for me. In January, I left teaching to follow a dream and move with my family to an ecovillage in rural Missouri. Since then, we have been homeschooling our two kids. When we were telling my family about our decision to leave mainstream life behind, they were – […]