I love to see new teachers join our ranks. In a profession that is being left behind to make more money working at the local 7-11, it’s still good to see fresh faces believing in what we do. The teachers fresh from student teaching, wearing their classroom key around their neck like a badge of […]
Professional Development
Posted inHow to Fix Education
[Opinion] Barack Obama: A Role Model for Teachers and Students
America and the World Today It has been a difficult week for America and the world. American leadership in the world seems to be collapsing as nations considered to be our allies are criticized and nations thought to be adversarial are applauded as friends. The old world order established after World War II where the […]
Posted inHow to Fix Education
Affirmative Action at the Crossroads: Which Direction will the Supreme Court Go?
Affirmative Action: Remedy or Racist? Recent actions by the Trump Administration and the pending resignation of Anthony Kennedy from the Supreme Court have brought into question the status of affirmative action, the set of federal policies instituted by John F. Kennedy to counteract centuries of discrimination against specific minorities in American society. Affirmative action was […]
Posted inAsk a Teacher
Taking the Anxiety Out of Student Placement in Special Education
If you are like me you get very invested in your students in special education. So invested that it is difficult to release them to the next special education teacher. I teach kindergarten through third grade mild/moderate special education in a resource room, so some of my kids loop up with me the next year […]
Posted inAdult Learning
The Politics and Pedagogy of Immigration Policy
The national debate over the Trump Administration policy of separating children from their parents at the southern border has reached a fever pitch. Images and audio of crying children, traumatized by the removal of their parents to detention facilities while the children are detained in what amounts to cages, have preoccupied the national media and gripped […]
Posted inHow to Fix Education
The High Expectations Myth
The high expectations myth is a pernicious, insidious mantra. It is the notion that if I, as a teacher, say and believe I hold high expectations, it is magically true. Examining actual teaching practices is neither necessary nor worthwhile. I have better things to do. Change or growth or flexibility aren’t needed. It is the […]
Posted inAdult Learning
American Values In the Classroom and Community: Where do we stand as a nation today?
As a teacher and American citizen, it is difficult to discern what values we stand for as a nation today. It seems that our government has blurred the lines between right and wrong, truth and falsehood, equality and discrimination, and honesty and scandal. In the pendulum swing from the “post-racial” Obama years to the quasi-authoritarian […]
Posted inHow to Fix Education
In Defense of Standardized Testing: A Reflection
Standardized testing: just the thought of these assessments strikes terror in the hearts of teachers. If only our students cared as much about how they score on state-mandated tests. Most of the educational literature reflects a negative view of standardized testing, but they serve an important purpose in American education: to indicate teacher effectiveness through […]