“I find your lack of substitutes disturbing.” Read that in a Darth Vader voice the next time you have to take off, and you’ll feel exactly the type of difficulty that I mean. It’s been 6 years since I wrote my story about how “Lack of Subs Is the Canary in the Coal Mine,” and […]
Instruction & Curriculum
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Sustainable Investment in Education – More Than Just a One Time Fix
Well, our day has finally come! Or has it? We have an unprecedented amount of money we have all been begging for! But, as educators, yet again, no one is asking the “experts in the room” how to spend it. Education has always been about droplets in a seemingly never-ending sea of inequities, where teachers […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Opinion: Protect Transgender Students: Block Anti-Transgender Sports Ban Bill
In recent news, Michigan filed a bill, SB 218, violating the human rights of high school transgender students. More than 20 states are adopting an anti-transgender student bill that would ban high school transgender students from playing on sports teams that match their gender identity. Why was this bill introduced? The reasoning behind the bill […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Hate Raging in Virtual Realms During COVID-19
February 24, 2021, will forever be etched in my memory. We were nearly an hour into the ninety-minute presentation when I began to see the trolls. There were so many coming at once that I couldn’t keep up. I will never forget the first appearance of the bright red Swastika. The words “Fuck Niggers” slowly […]
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 inInstruction & Curriculum
The Diary of a Wimpy Teacher
Fine, I admit it. I am a wimp. I bite my tongue, swallow my words, and cower behind the mute button in and out of the digital world. I worry more about the consequences of speaking the truth with no filter than I do about letting the truth set me free. I overthink, overanalyze, and […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Working to Rule is an Absurd Form of Protest
Working to rule is a form of protest being considered by teachers across the country. The basic tenet is that teachers will not engage in work-related activities outside of their contracted workday. Once they leave for the day, they won’t grade papers. They won’t check or respond to emails. They won’t plan lessons. It’s an […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Stop Asian Hate Now: Using the Injustice Against Asian-Americans as a Teaching Movement
Eight dead Americans… yet, again. Six Asian women…someone’s grandmother, mother, aunt, sister. As a Black Female Educator, I found myself remembering stories of Asian hate at my own school. The young female Chinese teacher who had Asian hate speech angrily etched into a desk. The new female Mandarin teacher being Zoom bombed, having to endure […]