The dark days of November are upon my students and admittedly the enthusiasm for being back in school has worn off. The fervor, rigor and rapid pace of schooling usually takes its toll on me this time of year and I have to develop means of not only survival but of hope as I try […]
Opinion
Posted inFeatured
Five Items For EVERY Teacher’s Christmas List
Now that the Christmas season is upon us, it isn’t too early to consider what presents we would like to request from our friends and family. My list is far from exhaustive and highly subjective, but as the New Year beckons, the average teacher desperately needs both inspiration and rest. To this end, I offer […]
Posted inCurrent Events in Education, Featured, Fine Arts, From the Front Lines, High School, Opinion, Social Justice
Why NYC Students Seeing 'Hamilton' Is a Big Deal
On October 27th, a joint collaboration of The Rockefeller Foundation, The Gilder Lehrman Foundation, producer Jeffrey Seller, creator (and star) Lin-Manuel Miranda, and New York City public schools announced that they will provide a means for more than 20,000 eleventh graders to not just watch Hamilton, the hottest, most ground-breaking musical in decades – but to actually go […]
Posted inFeatured, Opinion
15 Things My Newborn Son Taught Me About Education
On November 1st at 11:05p, Jonah, my newborn son, entered the world, joining my wife and me. While I’ve taught nearly 1,500 students in my 10 years of education, I hadn’t learned as much from one until I had after staying home with my new found family. Here are a dozen things he’s taught my wife and me that […]
Posted inCurrent Events in Education, Featured, Opinion, Principals' Corner, School Improvement, Uncategorized
Zero Tolerance For Zero Tolerance
As Russell J. Skiba points out in his research on zero-tolerance policies, it’s quite difficult to find the “moment” when our schools implemented zero-tolerance policies in our school, but we can trace the impact of them to the 1994 Free Schools Act as a time when districts were quick to suspend students for fear of […]
Posted inCurrent Events in Education, Featured, Opinion, Social Justice
Police, Black Students, and Teachers
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched the video clip of Ben Fields, Richland County (SC) school resource officer, where he picked up a young lady (who was black) and pulled her from her chair. I’ve done so because it astounds me that this situation occurred in our schools, but what also stuns […]
Posted inFeatured, Instruction & Curriculum, Opinion
Things Teachers Are Saying Wrong, and How to Correct Them
The insistence on vocabulary in education is a time-tested tradition of teachers. However, as curriculum changes and adapts, so does our subject-specific student vocabulary. That said, why hasn’t teacher vocabulary altered and upgraded throughout the years? Let’s look at a few things teachers say, what we should begin saying instead, and why… 1 – Start saying […]
Posted inCommon Core, Current Events in Education, Opinion, Uncategorized
What President Obama Didn’t Say About Standardized Testing
On Saturday, October 24th, President Obama came out with a wholehearted message about his concern about how much schools, teachers, and students were focusing on standardized testing. He began his speech with a pop quiz, asking parents what school options they would like to provide students who had more time to learn and what they could […]