I try to teach my students that language has power. There are many unfortunate classroom moments when teenagers colloquially use words they shouldn’t. Often, after saying something derogatory, students will immediately look at me and explain. “Oh, I don’t mean it like that” or “It’s just a joke.” Most of the time, I do know […]
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Was it a Debate or a Debacle: My Seventh Grade Students Could Have Done Better
Man oh man, if you did not watch the first Presidential debate, you’ve probably read the morning headlines or morning tweets regarding it by now. I believe the funniest tweet I’ve read suggested having Andy Cohen, of the Real Housewives shows, moderate instead. Whoever said that made a good point. Honestly, throw a middle school […]
Posted inSocial Justice
Lets Change the Conversation Around Defunding Education and the Police
As a teacher listening to calls to defund the police, my first reaction is to shrug and revel that someone else is feeling the misery of being expendable at budget time. Why should I suffer alone? That is a short-sighted view of the movement to defund the police. It’s not a movement to harm police. […]
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An Open Letter to White Educators
Trayvon Martin was killed on February 26, 2012. It has been eight years, and nothing has changed. Michael Brown was killed on August 9, 2014, preceding the Ferguson unrest that lasted weeks, and nothing has changed. Alton Sterling was killed on July 5, 2016, and nothing has changed. Stephon Clark was shot and killed on […]
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White House Cancels Standardized Testing and Suspends Federal Loan Payments
Schools across the United States will not have to the administrator any federally required tests for this school year, President Trump and the U.S. Department of Education announced Friday- marking a sweeping round of announcements heard in all fifty states. In the last week, advocacy groups have pushed the Department of Education to cancel testing- […]