Last week I shared “10 Reasons Why Teachers Should Host Political Debates.” It was a reflection piece on a State Senate debate I helped plan, coordinate, and orchestrate. Since then I’ve received several letters of thanks and strangers in the community approaching me in appreciation. Most importantly, students (and their parents) have expressed the most […]
Featured
Posted inFeatured
Experiences Matter in Education
I am thankful for my childhood, my family, and all the experiences I have had. I catch myself sometimes making a reflexive mental diagnosis for students who come from broken homes and bad influences.; judgments regarding why work doesn’t get done, why they behave a certain way, and so on. Despite what education attackers want […]
Posted inTeacher Leaders
No One Should be out of Place at the Opera
Right before Spring Break, my third graders took a trip to the Metropolitan Opera to attend a dress rehearsal of Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail. Going to the opera isn’t a normal part of third grade for a lot of New York City students. But thanks to my school’s dedicated music teacher, our third, […]
Posted inParents
“RAK” Up Teacher Appreciation Week
Happy Teacher Appreciation Week to our fellow educators! While they’ll hopefully be showered with gifts and praise this week by their school board, community, administrators, students, and parents – we have a project to pitch. We want to make this week not so much about teachers but about the currency of teachers: We want to […]
Posted inTeacher Leaders
School Safety Doesn’t Mean What You Think
School safety is paramount to most parents. They want to believe that their children can go to school, get an education and not be bullied or threatened. The current problem in our schools is that those who make decisions about the safety of schools seem to be more focused with attacks from strangers rather than […]
Posted inFeatured, Teacher Leaders
A Teacher’s Intuition..The School Reform Model
Education reform needs to include a renewed respect for the teaching profession, along with respect for the knowledge and intuition that teachers bring to the classroom. It may be uncomfortable for the drivers of the current reform narrative to admit, but it needs to be discussed because many of the “choices” pushed to the forefront […]
Posted inAsk a Teacher
4 Unusual Gift Ideas For Teacher Appreciation Week
I walked into my classroom the first morning of Teacher Appreciation Week a bit groggy and bleary-eyed from a terrific weekend – a weekend not spent grading or lesson planning, but instead, spent taking long walks, baking, and digging in my garden. There’s nothing easy about teaching first period English in junior high school – […]
Posted inBook Review
The Secrets of Timeless Teachers: Book Review
The Secrets of Timeless Teachers: Instruction That Works in Every Generation is aptly titled. Great teachers have existed in every age, with every type of technology, and in every nation. It is not the tools that make them great, but rather their form. Such can be said about this book, which is readable for just about […]