The Educator’s Room Reviews WNYC’s “Keeping Score” Podcast Have you signed up for The Educator’s Room Daily Newsletter? Click here and support independent journalism! Keeping Score is a brand new 4-part series from WNYC Studios and The Bell. The series follows the real students of one Brooklyn high school building that houses four separate schools and […]
Social Justice
Posted inOpinion
The Exhaustion of Black Educators on Another “Day After”
Have you signed up for The Educator’s Room Daily Newsletter? Click here and support independent journalism! Rage. Grief. Fear. I felt a plethora of emotions as I watched, listened, and read about yet another racially motivated mass shooting. Something as simple as a “normal” day of shopping on a beautiful and seemingly peaceful Saturday afternoon […]
Posted inInterviews
Why the Arts Matter in Schools
An Interview With Art Teacher, Jan Barzottini Have you signed up for The Educator’s Room Daily Newsletter? Click here and support independent journalism! As arts programs continue to be cut across K-12 schools, I am reflecting on the importance of arts in education. In “Arts Integration in School: 10 Reasons Why It’s Important,” Sandra Larson […]
Posted inOpinion
The Toxic Positivity Propaganda Machine
In order to change destructive patterns, we need to stop pretending they aren’t there. Have you signed up for The Educator’s Room Daily Newsletter? Click here and support independent journalism! For what feels like the thousandth time, I am laying in bed at 4:00 p.m. Exhausted from the teacher workday and too drained to be […]
Posted inOpinion
Forget College Readiness, We Need Citizenship Readiness
Have you signed up for The Educator’s Room Daily Newsletter? Click here and support independent journalism! When I started teaching high school English twenty years ago, my main focus was on preparing my students for college. It took me years of teaching, parenthood, a graduate degree, and personal distress about our national politics to finally […]
Posted inOpinion
A Teacher’s Plan for Elon Musk’s $44 Billion
Have you signed up for The Educator’s Room Daily Newsletter? Click here and support independent journalism! I wish I didn’t know the name Elon Musk. But when someone buys so much cultural influence, it’s tough to avoid hearing about how he shoots himself into space. His latest endeavor, buying Twitter for $44 billion, made me […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
7 Picture Books for Earth Day That Aren’t The Lorax
Each year on Earth Day elementary school teachers across the U.S. pull out The Lorax and other tried and true read-alouds. Many elementary teachers – a group that is disproportionately white women – tend to gravitate towards the books they grew up with. This is a problem. And while there’s nothing wrong with the environmental […]
Posted inOpinion
Children Don’t Avoid “Divisive” Topics, And Neither Can We
Have you signed up for The Educator’s Room Daily Newsletter? Click here and support independent journalism! As a primary teacher, I had interesting and sometimes challenging conversations on a regular basis. Young children do not limit their comments and questions to what’s “age-appropriate” or what is or isn’t “divisive.” They are trying to figure out […]