Valentine’s Day is just around the corner. Besides being bombarded with reminders to agree to bring an item for the Valentine’s Day class party on Sign-Up Genius, parents are also sent flyers about the father and daughter dance. As our society continues to change, our schools remain stagnant and keep hanging onto antiquated ideas. I […]
Instruction & Curriculum
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
I’m a Teacher and My Child is a Trans-Man
I have a confession to make. I’ve sat on a “secret” for a while, trying to figure out how to understand it. It’s taken me a LONG time to get to this point, but it has to be said. My oldest child, age 23, born Lauren, is a trans-man named Christian. As a conservative, religious […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Responding to DeVos’s Negligent #SOTU19 Response
With Donald Trump’s 2019 State of the Union address in the rear-view mirror, we are left to reflect on and process the 82-minute sermon. Naturally, education received some attention in the speech, as it has for countless other SOTUs. This time, Trump shared 16 particular words about his education policy: “To help support working parents, […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Teaching Romeo and Juliet to Beginning Level English Learners
Guest Writer: Karissa Knox Sorrell Teaching English Learners who are new to the country and are non-English speakers is a challenge at every grade, but it can be particularly challenging at the high school level when students have to earn credits, pass multiple state end-of-course exams, and engage with complex texts on a daily basis. With […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Cory Booker Is No Friend Of Public Education
The field of Democratic presidential candidates is wide open. Senator Elizabeth Warren, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Senator Cory Booker, and Senator Kamala Harris have all dipped their toes in the chilly water that is the 2020 election. Choices are usually positive in most things, except when it comes to school choice. Of all the politicians mentioned above, Cory […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Opinion: Watch Your Tone, Fix Your Face, and Other Unspoken Rules for Educators of Color
“Mrs. Morrison, you’re going to be such an anomaly when you go to your interviews. They’ll snap you right up!” Harmless statement? Encouraging? I beg to differ. To the outside world this comment may have seemed innocuous, but to me, a Black educator, I knew what it really meant. So, let’s unpack this, shall we? […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
The Implications of ‘Surviving R. Kelly’ in our Classrooms
I spent the last two evenings watching Lifetime’s documentary “Surviving R. Kelly.” If you haven’t seen it, watch it. Watch it now. I was in college at the University of Illinois at Chicago at the time his infamous “pee tape” became famous. I remember people in my classes telling me, through hushed whispers and giggles, […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Opinion: If You Can’t Say “Black Lives Matter” Then You Can’t Use Any Quotes from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Secondly, let us keep the issues where they are. The issue is injustice. […] Now we’ve got to keep attention on that. That’s always the problem with a little violence. You know what happened the other day, and the press dealt only with the window breaking. (15.1–2, 4–6) This is a quote from the last […]