Yesterday, the U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy Devos and President Donald Trump took a bold stand against school closures. After conducting decision-making meetings that supposedly included educators, students, and parents from around the country, each leader made their announcement. Devos stressed the idea that schools needed to be “fully operational” in the fall. She did […]
Current Events in Education
Posted inCOVID-19
Everybody Has Lost Their Damn Mind Around the Reopening of Schools
As a teacher, I am expected in less than 16 days to leave my children at home and risk my life to teach high school math to a group of 150+ smiling (and sometimes snarky) 15 year-olds. I’m expected to accommodate students throughout the day in small groups, all while continually assessing their areas of […]
Posted inBack to School
Preparing to Teach in an Upside-down World
Preparing for this coming school year is a daunting task. This past spring was challenging. Many teachers were reminded just why we teach in the classroom, and not online. And while it may seem to be too early to be talking about back to school, I know I can’t be the only teacher who is […]
Posted inParents
15 Things My 4-Year-Old Taught Me About Education
For the last four years, I’ve been updating this list of lessons that my son has taught me about how to be a better teacher. Here is how he has done that: 1 – Make an assessment of life’s priorities. If COVID-19 has taught us nothing else, it’s really — what are your priorities. For […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Lead Racism Out of Your School
Racism is like water. When racism finds a way in, it seeps into every opening it can find. Does racism exist in your school? If you said no, then dig deeper because you’re probably missing something. If you answered yes, what are you doing to lead racism out of your school? Racism in schools is […]
Posted inBack to School
2020: An Educator’s Summer of Waiting on COVID-19
When the 2020 Summer Olympics were postponed, I knew there would be a new event that would test the mettle of educators, students, parents, and other stakeholders in education. It’s trivia-based, and it has only one question. It’s called “What the hell happens in the fall?” COLLEGE What happens in college is as varied as […]
Posted inSocial Justice
Lets Change the Conversation Around Defunding Education and the Police
As a teacher listening to calls to defund the police, my first reaction is to shrug and revel that someone else is feeling the misery of being expendable at budget time. Why should I suffer alone? That is a short-sighted view of the movement to defund the police. It’s not a movement to harm police. […]
Posted inSocial Justice
White Privilege and the Power of Revision in Education
My first honest conversation about white privilege came much too late in life. I was a 40-something doctoral candidate taking a class on multicultural education with a dozen other white women. Thankfully, the course was taught by the same (white) professor whose mantra became my own: The more I learn, the less I know. This […]