Can I start by saying that I am really angry? Really. Angry! The State of Florida has given us so many examples of "what not to do" this month. While gearing up for the end of the year should be a joyous time, instead teachers in one school district are taking the full blame for student [...]
Recently, I was facilitating a discussion with high school teachers about Kylene Beers book When Kids Can’t Read What Teachers Can Do - A Guide for Teachers 6-12. In chapter four, Beers explained that one of her students did not understand how to find the main idea and that she did not do a good [...]
Welcome to 2018, where schools are permitted to hold pep rallies for students to "get them excited" about standardized tests (like that ever worked!?), but if a teacher makes his students - 95% of whom are free and reduced lunch - pancakes during the tests, that leads to him being fired. Seriously. This isn't an [...]
Something is wrong—very, very wrong. Teachers across the country at all grade levels, in all subjects, teaching a wide variety of student populations, can sense it. There is a pulse of dysfunction, a steady palpitation of doom that the path we are on is not properly oriented. There is a raw and amorphous anxiety creeping [...]
American democracy is at a crossroads. In November of this year, the American electorate will go to the polls to decide which party should control the Congress of the United States and set policy on the federal level. Majorities in many state legislatures and governorships across the nation will also be decided. As it stands [...]