On this suggested school boycott-let’s be serious. In The Atlantic, former Secretary of Education Arne Duncan suggested a massive nationwide school boycott to pressure our leaders into action to address gun violence. But a boycott of schools is not the way to pressure unwilling establishment leaders for better gun laws, and it is a shame that people considered to […]
Current Events in Education
The Royal Wedding: Why Should We Care? One American Teacher’s Perspective
The news broke this morning: another school shooting, this time in Santa Fe, Texas. I don’t want to think about it. I don’t want to entertain the thought that this most recent massacre is the 22nd school shooting this year. I can’t bear to think that ten more families will be planning funerals and that […]
Integrating Trends in Education: Lesson Plan Development for the 21st Century
When school starts next year, I’ll be in my thirty-fifth year in education. I feel like the slogan of the Farmer’s Insurance ad, “I know a thing or two because I’ve seen a thing or two.” Group work is now “Cooperative Learning.” Homework and tests are now tagged as “formative” and “summative” assessments. “Bloom’s taxonomy […]
Legalizing Marijuana – How does it Effect Schools?
Pot. Grass. Herb. Bud. Cheeba. 420. Mary Jane. You’ve probably smoked it. You’ve at least been around people who have smoked it. If not, you’ve seen it smoked on TV or the movies and thought those scenes were hilarious, it’s okay, you can admit it. In 2018 there are now eight states who have legalized […]
Mandy Manning Is The National Teacher of the Year We Need – And Deserve
Most Americans only know Mandy Manning, the 2018 National Teacher of the Year, by their own knee-jerk reaction to the State Teachers of the Year Award Ceremony at the White House and, of course, the political fallout that occurred thereafter. She’s a darling to those on the left, adorning her formal, floral black dress with […]
Teaching in a Polarized Society: Reaching Across the Political Divide
“And the Oscar Goes To…” Teaching Civics in today’s hyperpartisan atmosphere is a dangerous occupation. The issues that make up the dialogue of American politics seem to have separated the American electorate to a higher degree today than in years past. Americans were always able to agree on their common heritage as the greatest democracy […]
More Transgender Students are coming forward than ever before, are teachers prepared?
When I first started teaching it was 2004. The term “transgender” was rarely used. It was a term I may have heard in passing, but I never used it to describe any of the students in my school. As far as I knew, there were no students in my classes who identified as being transgender. […]
Teaching the Kids We Have Right Now: LGBT+ Youth in the Classroom
In a recent NPR piece interviewing author Alex Wagner, she stated: “I think we do a lot of work in this day and age focusing on the future and on the past….we don’t invest enough in the present.”[i] Wagner was talking about her exploration of her genetic backstory, but the fact is, we focus on […]