Our goal at The Educator’s Room is to provide content to our fellow teachers to show that teachers are the experts in education. We want teachers to tell their stories using their own personal experiences to show their expertise. As we continue to evolve as a publication, it’s important that we have an editorial standard for our publication.
1.1 Sourcing
- Information — excluding common knowledge — should come from a verified/linked source.
- Do not use sources that can be edited by anyone (i.e.Wikipedia, IMDb, etc.).
- Acceptable verified sources include interviews, legal documents, research by experts, academic journals, databases, and, with attribution, stories from trusted news organizations.
- Please hyperlink to all research in your article.
- As this is a teacher-friendly site, you are welcome to use your own personal classroom experience as research. Please be clear that this research is from your classroom in the article.
- If you use a study, please be mindful of any study with the following:
- less than a 100 sampling size
- conducted by someone who may have a conflict of interest. If you decide to use a study, please link to it and make sure you are clear about how the study supports your topic.
1.2 Quotes
While every article does not have to have a direct quote, using one will increase the integrity of your research. Please be mindful of the following if you use a quote.
- all quotes are to be attributed to the original author.
- quotes from other outlets should be attributed to that outlet: “told to The Guardian,” etc., with a link to the article.
- You have the right to use anonymous quotes but be sure to include a byline that tells why you are using an anonymous source. (i.e. The teacher featured in this article decided to remain anonymous to avoid losing their job.)
- You can use embedded videos and quotes from Twitter or Instagram, but please switch over to the HTML side to embed them. Use this tutorial to do so.
- Once articles are submitted, our editor has the right to change titles to meet SEO guidelines and/or refuse if the content is not appropriate for our readers.
1.3 Editing
Once articles are submitted, our editor has the right to change titles to meet SEO guidelines and/or refuse if the content is not appropriate for our readers. Our editorial process looks like this:
- On Sunday we sent out a list of possible topics/ideas for the upcoming week. Writers should respond to the email with your topic with a deadline of the following Saturday for submission. Please note the deadline may be sooner depending on the topic.
- A finished draft (along with a headshot and short bio) should be emailed to info@theeducatorsroom and editor@theeducatorsroom.com for consideration for any of our three publications.
- Feedback will be given within 48-72 hours with the expectation that the writer will update and return within 24 hours.
- Once an approved copy is accepted, our staff will schedule the article.
- Writers are paid on a monthly basis and should submit all published pieces on one invoice.
1.4 AP Stylebook
All articles will be formatted according to AP style. Please refer to The AP Stylebook for detailed explanations. This is the style guide that professional media use. The Stylebook is
available in print form, as a smartphone app, or by subscription for classroom and/or home
computers. For a cheat sheet, please click here.