Instruction & Curriculum

By Nosakhere Griffin-EL, Ph.D. When you turn on television it seems like everyone is being unkind to each other. Politicians  are hurling insults, using dehumanizing words to blame “the other side”  for government shutdown; sport analysts rant about why a player isn’t living up to his million dollar contract; celebrities trade insults in a never […]

Starting a new program is every educator’s dream and nightmare. You get to design everything from scratch—but you also carry the weight of every decision. In 2016, I embraced one of my greatest challenges yet: becoming the MYP Language Teacher and Head of the English Department at a new International Baccalaureate (IB) school in Amman, […]

At the beginning of my teaching career, I benefited from the fierce advocacy of veteran teachers who advocated for students and staff. I was very empowered by their support. As they retired, I often found myself being the only person willing to stand up for our most vulnerable students: students with disabilities and students from […]

I grew up in 1970s Las Vegas, during the era of school desegregation and redlining, a discriminatory housing practice where banks and the government literally drew red lines around minority neighborhoods, denying families access to fair home loans and shaping inequities in schools and educational opportunities. I didn’t know what redlining was back then. What […]

According to a federal judge, the Department of Education was unlawful in using partisan messaging on out-of-office automatic replies during the recent government shutdown. On Friday, November 8, Judge Christopher R. Cooper of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia found that the Department of Education “infringed upon its employees’ First Amendment rights” […]

We’ve all joked about being hangry. We say it when we snap at someone before lunch or feel our brains fog mid-afternoon.We know hunger makes us short-tempered, distracted — a little less human. Now imagine being seven years old and living in that feeling all the time. As lawmakers debate another round of SNAP cuts […]

Parademic  Paraprofessionals: Because teachers need heroes too!  Paraprofessional: Because miracle-worker isn’t a job title!  Quotes praising the hard-working paras in the education world are endless. Many educators and administrators agree that their schools simply could not operate without the dedication of their support staff. It’s no wonder! The roles of paraeducators have evolved right along […]

On September 22, 2025, during a White House press conference with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Donald Trump, they stated that the use of Tylenol (acetaminophen) during pregnancy may be linked to autism, despite any evidence supporting this claim. Asking for help has always been stimagtizing for learners. When a learner needs additional support, we’ve put them […]