All across the United States, there is an unprecedented attack on public employees’ rights and benefits, especially teachers’ pensions. Those of us in Illinois have felt, as has the nation, the impact of the 2008-09 financial crises. State policymakers have responded to this catastrophe, not by addressing the structural deficits that are a result of […]
Opinion
Posted inCurrent Events in Education, Featured, From the Front Lines, High School, Middle School, Opinion
Take a Moment to Stop – And Enjoy the End of the School Year!
“Hey Jake,” Bill, our school custodian, stopped me as I sped down the hallway with a list of things to accomplish, “did you see the beautiful, blooming dogwood out in front of the school?” “Yeah, it looks great,” I said as I shrugged him off in ways only busy teachers understand. “I’m serious man, come […]
Posted inCurrent Events in Education, Featured, High School, Instruction & Curriculum, Middle School, Opinion
The Truth Behind the Atlanta Public Schools Cheating Scandal
By now the headlines have screamed about how teachers and administrators cheated in Atlanta Public Schools (APS) to falsify results from the CRCT exams in elementary and middle schools. As a teacher who worked in APS for several years, these headlines literally make my stomach turn. Despite the claims about answer changing parties, administrators who […]
Posted inFeatured, How to Fix Education, Opinion
When Teachers Need to Be More Than Teachers
Teaching in an inner city school has afforded me the opportunity to interact with many different types of students. All of these students have taught, and continue to teach me different life lessons on a daily basis. Sometimes what you learn about the students can be quite sad. When I first began teaching I was […]
Posted inFeatured, From the Front Lines, Instruction & Curriculum, Opinion
All In A Day's Work – An Oklahoma Teacher Reflects
The dust is settling (due to the continual storms and rain) from the F5 tornado that once again ripped through South Oklahoma City and Moore. We have been devastated many times in Oklahoma due to tornadoes, but this was by far the worst. Over 13,000 homes are lost, thousands are damaged, 24 people lost their […]
Posted inFeatured, Opinion, The Unemployed Teacher
The End of the Year Means the End of a Job for Many Teachers
The end of the school year is usually a time of concluding lessons, wrapping up projects, packing up classrooms, and looking forward to a bit of recovery time (however brief it might be). Most of all, it brings a huge sigh of relief – the school year has been conquered! But for many teachers this […]
Posted inFeatured, Opinion
Endings and Beginnings
By: Jane Rhodes As the school year ends for so many of us in the next few weeks, it is easy to be caught up in business of grading final assignments, attending end-of-year assemblies, finally cleaning out our classrooms (do we really need to keep all those paper towels tubes for projects next year?), and […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Throwing Each Other Under The Bus: Where has Mutual Teacher Support Gone?
School bus (noun) – (1) A bus that transports students from home to school, school to home, or school-sponsored events; (2) a typically yellow-colored vehicle designed to deliver students on their school-related travels; (3) a place under which teachers can throw one another. I’m often amazed at how frequently teachers commit to definition 3. Why? […]