Statistics show that during the first five years of teaching, the majority of new teachers will leave the profession. What’s even more staggering is trying to figure out what do these teachers end up doing after they leave the field of education? In the opening of Season 3 of our podcast, we interview Andrea Holyfield […]
Book Review
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
The Prize: Mark Zuckerberg & His $100 Million Gift to Newark Public Schools (Book Review)
The subtitle of Dale Russakoff’s book begs the question — who’s in charge of America’s schools? In the push-and-pull system of school reformers vs. union members, outsiders vs. insiders, school boards vs. state and federal leaders, elites vs. grassroots, admin vs. teachers, and a host of other stakeholders over the “best interests of students,” it’s not […]
Posted inBook Review
‘Hillbilly Elegy’ and the Blight of Rural Schools
“I was one of those kids with a grim future,” author J.D. Vance begins in his book Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis. “I almost failed out of high school. I nearly gave in to the deep anger and resentment harbored by everyone around me. Today people look at me, […]
Posted inHigh School
Let’s Talk About Race: Jodi Picoult’s ‘Small Great Things’
Racism is different. It’s fraught, and it’s hard to discuss, and so as a result we often don’t – Jodi Picoult. Every year that I have taught, To Kill a Mockingbird has been in the curriculum. As a lover of literature, I am excited to share this masterpiece with my students. And every year, most students […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Book Review: ‘Play Like A Pirate’
I recently met teacher and author Quinn Rollins at the National Council for the Social Studies Conference earlier this month, and the session he led was on incorporating graphic novels into the classroom (you can read more about it in the link above). I’d be interested in teaching with graphic novels since Jeff Kinney’s first Diary of […]
Posted inOpinion
The Good News In Education We’ve Been Waiting For: ‘Capturing The Spark’ – a Book Review
Palo Alto High School English teacher David B. Cohen has done a favor for the teaching profession by writing Capturing the Spark: Inspired Teaching, Thriving Schools. The book pushes back again a tired and prosaic cynicism about the teaching profession that reflexively asserts that American education is in a sad and dilapidated state, soiled by […]
Posted inBook Review
Book Review: Teach Like A Champion 2.0
The book Teach Like A Champion is one that many educators have read, or, at the very least, heard of. This especially rings true for our classroom leaders who teach in urban schools. The first edition launched in 2010 by Doug Lemov, a teacher and administrator for the Uncommon Schools initiative, this book chronicles Lemov’s attempts to […]
Posted inBook Review
Reading Outside of the Canon: Jodi Picoult’s Nineteen Minutes
Why this novel? At the end of the year, I ask my students to write advice and words of encouragement for next year’s class. I present their wisdom during my first-day-of-school presentation. For my juniors (both honors and regular), this phrase (or something similar) is the most common: Read Nineteen Minutes. Out of all of […]