Excitement! Anxiety! Hope! These were just a few of the many emotions I felt when I stood in front of a high school classroom for the first time as the teacher. I was the one writing on the chalkboard and overhead projector. I was also the only one expected to design, plan, and teach every […]
Instruction & Curriculum
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Teaching Eighth Grade: When the picture before you doesn’t match the old picture in your head
“Old” in my twenty-nine years isn’t much, I’ve gathered, yet when I think about the dreams I’ve had about my classroom environment versus the classroom I stand in today, you’d think it was a vastly different time, not a little over a decade apart. It is a vastly different time, I’ve learned. Vastly. Different. With […]
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The Heart of a School Counselor: A Tapestry of all the Feels
The first time I sat across from a student whose eyes held more storm than sky, I knew this work would demand every piece of me. As a school counselor, I entered this profession with a fire in my chest—a fierce desire to cradle the hearts of students and lift the spirits of educators. I […]
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A Thanksgiving Conversation We Can’t Avoid: Education Under Attack
This year in education has been anything but peaceful. I needed this one-week break for Thanksgiving. In August, billions in school funding were abruptly withheld just as the school year began. On top of that, ICE has targeted students and parents on campus, with teachers stepping in to physically protect them and their families. Special […]
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Classroom Battlefields: The Nation Needs to Pay Attention
The nation needs to pay attention. -“Let’s sit in our bubble space.” -“The first thing we do is always the same, we pick up our pencil and write our name.” -”We don’t put that in our mouth; that has germs.” Ahh, the soundtrack of a typical first grade classroom. Many elementary school teachers are […]
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When My Therapy Dog Became My Co-Teacher, and Changed How I Teach
The first time I brought my therapy dog, Little Dude, into my classroom, I expected curiosity, excitement, maybe even distraction. What I didn’t expect was how instantly he transformed the energy of the room, or how profoundly he would reshape the way I think about teaching. I had been volunteering with Little Dude through The […]
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New student loan caps in “Big Beautiful Bill” could deepen shortages in critical professions
The Department of Education and a federal rulemaking committee have agreed on new regulations tied to H.R.1 that will significantly reshape graduate and professional student borrowing. The law caps federal loans at $100,000 for graduate students and $200,000 for professional students, while ending Grad PLUS loans in 2026. Because only “professional” programs qualify for the […]
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My Literary Crimes: A Defense of Teaching Storytelling
I was 25 when I read Dylan Thomas’ Lament Poem to a room of amateur poets at one of their monthly gatherings in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois. As Dylan Thomas. I was 25 and a genius and these poets, the way I understood them, were a spit in the face of Poetry and the killers of the […]