The U.S. Department of Education announced plans to vacate its longtime headquarters in the Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ) building, marking one of the most visible steps yet in the Trump administration’s ongoing effort to scale back the agency. The Department said the LBJ building, which is located in downtown Washington, will be turned over to […]

I have worked for the New York City Department of Education since 2005. I began as a teaching assistant while in high school, became a teaching scholar in college, substitute taught for six years, and have now taught full-time as a special education teacher for the past eleven years. Through all these roles, one truth […]

During my final years in the classroom, I struggled with something many teachers now face: We’ve lost our students. Disengagement is everywhere, and if we keep teaching the same way, we risk losing them for good. We must find a way to bring them back. “There are many students who are lacking motivation,” a Pennsylvania […]

During the 2023/2024 school year at Blue Ridge School (my final year of fulltime teaching), I lived in a trailer.  ‘A trailer’ wasn’t completely accurate.  It was actually a cluster of trailers large enough to house four human beings along with three restrooms, a kitchen, common area and a large front porch.  However, our individual […]

María Barragán Ortiz is an internationally recognized multilingual educator, researcher, Top 50 Educator, and consultant whose work centers on creating safe, inclusive, and sustainable learning environments. From her early experiences growing up in a rural town in southern Spain to teaching and researching across Spain, Poland, England, and the United States, María has seen firsthand […]