Now Is the Time to Join Your School’s Governance Team Here’s Why, and How to Do It The State of California is pumping stimulus money into schools like a kid pumps pencil shavings into the back of his desk. As a teacher, I’d like to see more than my union, or my district decides what […]
How to Fix Education
Posted inClassroom Management, Featured, Higher Education, How to Fix Education
[Opinion] Teaching is Not for the Faint of Heart
Courtney Frausto is a 6th-grade ELAR teacher in Texas. She is strong-willed and determined to be her best at everything that she does. She loves a challenge and is always looking to master a new skill. She has a passion for teaching and a love that runs deep for her students. When Courtney is not […]
Posted inAsk a Teacher
Teach to the Rest: How the Pandemic Could Be the Best Thing for Education in 20 Years
What’s getting you through 2020’s chaos? For me, it’s the knowledge that education could change, and not by a little. As with all things education, I’m not alone of course, And many others have come before me. I know because I used the pandemic to read them all. Reardon and Timar. Ravitch and Tatum, Delpit […]
Posted inHow to Fix Education
Abusing Teachers is Normal: Normal is the Problem
“When we get back to normal” is the attitude helping people see through the difficulty that has been the COVID-19 pandemic. [bctt tweet=”Abusing teachers is normal. Normal is not a destination worth seeking.” username=””] “Mental health” and “work-life balance” are the in-vogue phrases that are used to tell teachers to take care of themselves. Meanwhile, […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
OPINION: I Chose The New Deputy Secretary of Education Myself Once
The school in which I teach, and now send my daughter to learn, lies in one of the lowest socioeconomic neighborhoods in San Diego. Nearly all of its students qualify for free and reduced lunch, the vast majority of the students speak English as a second language and teachers teach their hearts out. But there’s […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Nobody Trusts Teachers
Nobody trusts teachers. Imagine a snowy Wednesday morning in February–a scheduled remote teaching day and a day following an actual, old-school type of snow day. [bctt tweet=”Now imagine teachers driving on those snow-covered roads to teach via Google Meets in empty classrooms. ” username=””] Picture many of those same teachers scrambling for child care because the […]
Posted inAsk a Teacher
The Teacher Learns the Lesson: Reminiscing on 48 Years of Teaching
Every future teacher has a lot to learn in college, but as I would soon find out after my college graduation day, nothing beats the “on the job training” you get when you go through that first year of teaching. I was so excited when I received my first teaching job in Florida back […]
Posted inClassroom Management
6 Tips For Teachers Surviving Starting Mid-Year During a Pandemic
Whether you are a new teacher graduating in December, coming back from maternity leave, or making a mid-year move, picking up a teaching position after the school year has begun is challenging. I personally took over a teaching position after the first quarter of a school year, following a parade of substitutes. The previous teacher […]