The students have begun to disappear. In the beginning of the school year, when class began every day, I was greeted with a friendly mosaic of smiling teenage faces. This was the beginning of their senior year of high school, and while no one wanted it to commence with the assistance of Zoom and Google […]
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Posted innews
An Open Letter to White Educators
Trayvon Martin was killed on February 26, 2012. It has been eight years, and nothing has changed. Michael Brown was killed on August 9, 2014, preceding the Ferguson unrest that lasted weeks, and nothing has changed. Alton Sterling was killed on July 5, 2016, and nothing has changed. Stephon Clark was shot and killed on […]
Posted inConfessions of a Teacher
Opinion: There Are A Lot of Karens in My School Building and I’m Barely Surviving
Guest Writer: Brielle Stevens Brielle is a high school English teacher who enjoys writing, running, and traveling the world, pre-COVID. By now, we’ve all watched the viral video of Amy Cooper in Central Park, NY, threatening to call the police and saying “that an African-American man is threatening my life” before dialing 911. The video has received […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Cultural Responsiveness is Not Just for White Teachers
I remember my first year teaching….I was having difficulty with a few of my 6th-grade students. They were male and Hispanic. I wasn’t sure what the gap was but they ignored me when I spoke, they made rude comments and made it quite clear they weren’t going to do anything that I asked (including their […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
The Only One: The Two Percent Issue in Education
I grew up abroad. In elementary school, I was often the only Black male in my class. Even though there were probably racist conversations had around me, I was oblivious. I was aware I was different from most in my class, but my family instilled pride and confidence in me at a young age. However, […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail
In April in 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King was jailed in a Birmingham Jail after he defied a state court’s injunction and led a march of protestors to urge an Easter boycott of white-owned stores due to mistreatment of blacks. The letter defends the strategy of nonviolent resistance to racism. It says that people have a moral responsibility to […]
Posted inCurrent Events in Education
A School Boycott Isn’t the Way To End Gun Violence
On this suggested school boycott-let’s be serious. In The Atlantic, former Secretary of Education Arne Duncan  suggested a massive nationwide school boycott to pressure our leaders into action to address gun violence. But a boycott of schools is not the way to pressure unwilling establishment leaders for better gun laws, and it is a shame that people considered to […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
A Reformed Ed-Reformer
Once upon a time, I was that young, white, teacher that really believed that the problem with my local urban school and our mismanaged district was the teachers’ union and the teachers that just didn’t work or care hard enough. I remember going to see Waiting for Superman and crying in the theater. Yes, I pumped […]