Have you signed up for The Educator’s Room Daily Newsletter? Click here and support independent journalism! Who is an unaccompanied homeless youth? I’ve written previously about how, in education, we define homelessness under the McKinney-Vento Law. It is a definition that includes those living with others or in hotels due to economic hardship or emergency. […]
College and Career
Posted inPedagogy
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 […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Assigning a Research Paper? Think About Rigor, Responsibility, and Relevance in English/Language Arts
As English language arts teachers, we need to teach the language of doing business along with the literary arts. Thesis We teach literary research and other standard ELA concepts because students will be able to transfer the skills. Simply put, if students can research the imagery of Emily Dickinson’s poems, they can, likewise, research blood-alcohol […]
Posted inBack to School
Staying Within Law: Special Education Teachers and IDEA
Although it’s been a rough start to the 20-2021 school year for most school districts in the United States, school districts are still required to meet the service needs of their special education students. Under IDEA, the Bible for Special Services, also known as the Individuals with Disabilities Act, denotes in detail what our special […]
Posted inCurrent Events in Education
A Pandemic Brings Opportunity to Rethink Standardized Testing
Coronavirus-canceled testing brings an opportunity. As a teacher and parent in the state of New York, news that standardized testing might be canceled this year brings mixed emotions. I suspected the closures due to COVID-19 might come to this, and for many years I have been pretty open about my personal feelings about abuse-by-test. My […]
Posted inHow to Fix Education
Getting Reading Right: The Education Week Online Summit
Getting Reading Right was the title and focus of the free online Education Week summit held on January 28, 2020. EdWeek reporters moderated with guest literacy specialists in six separate online chats framed by the results of the 2019 EdWeek Research Center survey on Early Reading Instruction. Online registered participants were eligible for a certificate […]
Posted inCollege and Career
Activists Are Needed in Education
The year: 1980 Activists in education are needed now more than ever. I was thirteen years old when I saw this coming. A smug ex-actor with Brylcreemed hair dropped a condescending line in a presidential debate. That isn’t a big deal by itself, especially when you consider how low the presidential decency bar currently is. […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
It’s time to talk about the culture of fear around standardized testing
The temperatures are warming. The skies are bright. The birds are chirping. Spring fever is in full effect, and everyone is awaiting summertime! Unfortunately for educators and students, there is a huge hump to get over…standardized testing. End of the year assessments are looming over us. It seems like the entire school year comes down […]