Could podcasts kill the video star? “What the ____ is a podcast?” An eleventh-grade student who would go on to be accepted at an Ivy League school asked this question in response to my question: “OK, guys, how do y’all feel about creating a podcast?” Don’t get the idea that this interaction took place “back […]
Literacy
A Millennial Librarian Wants to Change How We View the Library
Jessica Fitzpatrick is a high school librarian in Houston and is in her eighth year of education. She holds a Bachelor of Science in elementary education from the University of Houston and a Master of Library and Information Science from the University of North Texas. She is the 2020 TLA Branding Award Winner for Community […]
Fire the Canon: Curriculum is the Vehicle, Not the Destination
Fire the Canon: Curriculum is the Vehicle, Not the Destination It feels like every year around this time, the English department has a serious discussion about the curriculum. We start with valid PLC questions about key skills and standards at each grade level, but quickly devolve into how we taught specific canonical books and the […]
How Amanda Gorman’s Poetry Inspired my Lesson
On January 20th or Inauguration Day, Amanda Gorman, the youngest inaugural poet, a young black woman stood in front of the United States and blew us away with her moving words, and her beautiful delivery. As an educator, a young black woman, and an immigrant, I felt invigorated by her words. One line, in particular, […]
Publishing So White: 7 Essential Black Young Adult Authors
Last week, The New York Times published a piece examining the whiteness in the publishing industry. (Thank you to Pod Save the People for bringing it to my attention in your underreported news section. I learn something new from you every week!) In the five major publications, they analyzed, from 1950-2018, 95% of their authors […]
Painless Poetry: A Road Less Traveled
Painless Poetry “Gross! I hate this stuff!” “This is too hard, I don’t wanna do it!” “It never makes sense to me, it’s all so weird.” Then the calm voice of reason speaks- “Ladies, we have to teach it, it’s part of the curriculum.” What is this dreaded standard? Poetry. That single word would often […]
Rebranding the Dreaded Essay: How to Demystify Essays and Make Them Meaningful During COVID-19
Whenever students hear the word “essay,” they groan, eye roll, and plead for something, anything else. Similarly, most adults I know remember high school or college essays they grudgingly finished just under the wire; late-night coffee, obsessive word counting, and a fair amount of teacher-specific bs-ing. It’s clear “The Essay” gets a bad rap, and […]
One Step At A Time: My Go To Lesson With Van Gogh’s Starry Night
My Go-To Lesson If I were to ask you what is your “go-to” lesson, I bet a dozen donuts you could tell me all about it! Well, one of my favorite ones involves several different variations of Van Gogh’s Starry Night. Small side story – while visiting my son and daughter-in-law in Dallas, we took […]