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 […]
Instruction & Curriculum
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Turning The Page on Tragedy
My close friend and long-time colleague, Michelle, died three weeks ago. She was only forty years old. We shared thousands and thousands of students together over the past eighteen years. Her classroom is on the same floor as mine, just around the corner. We coached speech and debate together in our early twenties, created an […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
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 […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
The Declining Mental Health of Educators
Teaching is different from other professions because your mental health affects so many different lives, lives who are truly vulnerable and dependent on you for growth. This places an extreme amount of pressure and stress on teachers, and if they are already predisposed to mental health issues, it can be a recipe for disaster. I […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
The Dirty Secret of Implementing Independent Reading: Fund What You Believe
“Students need to read like writers and they need to write like readers.” ― Kelly Gallagher The current craze in education is around giving students choice in what they read in an attempt to get them excited about reading again. This idea as basic as it has “lit” a fire in teachers in demanding that students have […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Janelle Monáe: Our Students’ New(ish) Role Model
Janelle Monáe. The name means many things to many people. Actress in the Oscar-winning films Hidden Figures and Moonlight. Musician. Android. African American. Pansexual. Queer. The meaning that is most important to me, though, is role model. Now, I know some teachers and parents will cry out that her music and videos aren’t exactly PG. […]
Posted inAsk a Teacher
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 […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
A Reformed Ed-Reformer
Once upon a time, I was that young, white, teacher that really believed that the problem with my local urban school and our mismanaged district was the teachers’ union and the teachers that just didn’t work or care hard enough. I remember going to see Waiting for Superman and crying in the theater. Yes, I pumped […]