The destruction of the School District of Philadelphia began in 2001. That was the year when the schools were in serious financial trouble. The lack of funding had two culprits. Philadelphia’s City Council was not interested in raising real estate taxes to help the district. Pennsylvania’s state legislature has never wanted to seriously fund Philadelphia […]
Current Events in Education
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Celebrating Banned Books in the Classroom
Even though Banned Books Week has officially passed, you don’t have to restrict talking about censorship to just one week of the school year. In fact, I would encourage you to discuss censorship and why books might be challenged throughout the school year, not just for a week in September. I actually like to keep banned […]
Posted inOpinion
Religion Isn’t Dead in Schools
From time to time, I receive an email from a parent asking “how do you go about teaching religion?” They are afraid that learning about other religions or even Greek mythology will taint the family beliefs that they and/or their institution have taught. As a public school teacher, there’s really one answer – “I don’t teach […]
Posted inCommon Core
Have You Been To A #GAFE Summit?
I’ve been teaching for 26 years – English, AVID, Yearbook, Reading, History and any sort of intervention class that gets thrown my way. I’ve been through whole language and back. I’ve survived NCLB. I’ve been trained in teaching the Gifted and Talented, the At-Risk and 21st-century students. And last weekend, I went to my first […]
Posted inCurrent Events in Education
Strike!
On September 28, the Chicago Teachers Union voted to go on strike on October 11 if no deal has been reached with the Chicago Public Schools. This is no surprise. The Chicago teachers have been without a contract for over a year. What is surprising is that 95% of the Chicago Teachers Union membership of […]
Posted inCurrent Events in Education, Featured, Social Justice
Implicit Bias: The Missed Post-Debate Discussion
Estimates are that over 100 million people (broadcast television and streaming combined) tuned into the Presidential Debate on September 26, 2016 – the largest viewership ever of a debate, and one of the largest television audiences ever. In the week following the debate between candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, several parts of the debate […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
A Paul Bunyan Story Map Becomes a Lesson in Racism
As it often happens, I was looking for one thing (Google’s expansion into creating maps and navigation tools) when I came upon another. I had clicked my way to a story map of the folk tale hero Paul Bunyan. I had followed a link to the Osher Library Map Cartographic Southern Maine University website and soon was down an […]
Posted inCurrent Events in Education
An Educator’s Message to Vaccination Opponents
A few days ago, I heard some loud noises coming from the room next door. It then turned to screaming. I briefly peered out into the hallway to see if it was under control, and a few teachers’ aides were helping to calm one of our autistic students. I revisited the classroom during lunch to […]