I’ve taught high school English in upstate New York for eighteen years, and today is the last day of regular classes, so I’d like to teach one more lesson before final exams begin. It will be a lesson on the literary term “Juxtaposition,” the act of placing two things side by side to highlight their […]
race
Posted inOpinion
Check Your Bias and Do the Work: What Teachers Can Learn from Angel Reese
Have you signed up for The Educator’s Room Newsletter? Click here and support independent journalism! As a former high school basketball player, and perhaps more importantly, as a Black woman, I found myself triggered by the “outrage” over Angel Reese’s end-of-the-game gesture that was deemed by some as a “classless taunt.” It brought me back […]
Posted inBook Review
Leading Equity: A White Educator’s Review
Have you signed up for The Educator’s Room Daily Newsletter? Click here and support independent journalism! Dr. Sheldon L. Eakins, Ph.D.’s Leading Equity: Becoming an Advocate for All Students, touches on mindsets, beliefs, and practices that are foundational to equity-centered teaching and learning. The book is reflective of his work as the director of Leading Equity […]
Posted inOpinion
My Question to White Teachers: Why Are You Here?
Have you signed up for The Educator’s Room Daily Newsletter? Click here and support independent journalism! Why I Asked the Question School has already begun for many students across the country and will begin for many more in the next few weeks. Like most teachers, I spent the summer recuperating from and reflecting on the […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
We Need to Reimagine Education. Is Critical Race Theory the Answer?
Believe it or not, we are living during an educational renaissance. Politicians are grappling with how much money should be dedicated to school systems to adequately pay teachers and provide proper resources, principals must consider the metrics to use to observe teachers as virtual academies crop up throughout the states, all while teachers navigate mitigating […]
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 inCurrent Events in Education
Race-Conscious Reading For Preschool
Guest Writer: Marisa Lark Wallin Initiating conversations about race and culture in your regular reading can help young children resist being socialized into white supremacy. Black Lives Matter At School national week of action will happen this February 3-7, 2020. There are many things you can do to participate in the movement individually or with […]
Posted inCurrent Events in Education
Teaching Black Consciousness and White Privilege
One matter we have gotten over very quickly as a country is the notion, beginning in 2008 and carried throughout the Obama presidency, that we now live in a “post-racial” society. The fact that an African American was twice-elected to the nation’s highest office gave rise to the idea that racial discord can now be […]