Ahhhh… the two weeks teachers wait for that never seem to get here fast enough. I was so ready to be done with 2018 I had a collection of white flags hidden in my desk that I found myself waving ever so slightly throughout that last week of school. So as I got off of [...]
Earlier this Spring, the Philadelphia-based education think tank Research for Action held a Twitter chat around the hashtag #4percentchat, which was the number of non-white teachers that we have here in Pennsylvania. Yes, though 18% of the Commonwealth is non-white, teachers of color are much less rare. While this is a problem in Pennsylvania, its [...]
I deal with the most difficult of kids. In all of my years of teaching, I have been called The Pied Piper for Children’s Behavior and a Child Whisperer. But one thing that has never gotten easier is seeing seven, eight and nine-year-old children on medications that can eventually cause more harm than good. [...]
By: Tory Waggoner I came out to my students as both queer and gender nonconforming while working in a district just outside of Portland, OR. I was not prepared for the backlash I faced from colleagues, students, and parents. I thought in the liberal mecca of the Portland metro area that I would be relatively safe, [...]
We are always challenging students to think differently: branch out, think outside the box, get out of their comfort zone. As a social studies teacher, I’m often trying to incorporate issues and ideas into our study or conversations that are relevant to students’ lives; things they may be facing now or will likely deal with [...]