Schools are not immune from the inequities and societal issues that plague our society at large. Brown v. Board of Education was a poignant example of that when it was argued in 1952, while segregation was rampant in society, not just in schools. Today is...
Travel to schools across the country, and you’ll see it’s clear that teachers are working hard and truly care about their students. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be doing this job day after day. When I walk through buildings and talk with teachers, I hear and sense...
For more than a year, I have been struck by the ongoing school discipline “wars.” Sometimes the fight seems as much a war of semantics as of approaches and beliefs. Perhaps it is not a new fight, but for the first time in my two-plus...
Being a first-year teacher is rewarding, challenging, and filled with lessons that you plan for your students and that you learn from yourself. While your first year is likely to include late night planning, anxiety with each classroom observation, and tons of trial and error,...
I recently walked into a classroom to hear a teacher tell a student across the room “Jason, you’re on step 6 on the consequence chart.” It was only 9:40 am! I wondered to myself what this student could have possibly done so wrong to be...
Given the amount of time teachers and students spend together over the course of a year, relationships between the educators and students will form. It is inevitable. How productive those relationships are for both teachers and students, is left to question. Understanding the tendencies of teachers...
Perhaps you’re a coach or school leader who has heard a teacher say, “But, they don’t know the language." Perhaps you are an educator who has said or thought this about a student. It’s an understandable concern to wonder how a child can learn at...
In my office, to the right of my desk, is a bookshelf. The first four shelves are filled with books about topics that you might expect: being an effective principal, promoting instructional improvement, and supporting students with special needs, to name a few. The bottom...
Even if your school doesn’t share a zip code with Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, your school community may be dealing with its own difficulties related to the tragedy there. Fear, empathic grief, a desire to do something, a self-assessment – these are just...
We all want to feel cared for and valued by the significant people in our lives. As teachers, that means not only building professional relationships with the other adults in the school, but most importantly with the students with whom we have the opportunity to...