“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose.” ~Dr. Seuss, Oh, The Places You’ll Go! Educators, riddle me this: How many of us actually send our personal children
Read More
An Argument For Physics First in AZ
Why in the world do we teach science the way we do? Lets radically change the way we teach STEM in our schools in this state! Like most other states, we teach in a sequence that goes something like this: Freshman-
Read More
Henry Ford and Ed Policy
“I’d like to observe your 90-minute reading block if that works for you,” says my principal as we are setting a date for my formal observation. “Well, we’ll be using literacy skills to close read and annotate a piece of
Read More
Open Letter to Principals Who Stayed
The following letter is written to all school and district administrators who have stayed for four years or more and worked tenaciously for school improvement. Dear Leaders, Thank you. Thank you for staying put for a few years and leading
Read More
Trade Secrets
My husband is a professional chef. And yes, I fully understand that I am the luckiest woman in the world. He was working in the restaurant kitchen when he was asked to come out and speak with a chef who
Read MoreBack to la Escuela #3: Spanish for English?
In my previous two “back to schools” blogs, I focused on bringing back librarians and basic supplies such as tissue. I struggled more for the third topic, because the obvious choice seemed to be to bring back teachers! Recently the
Read MoreTHE RACE TO GATHER MORE DATA
Many years ago I sat down with my Grandma and talked about what teaching was like for her back in the 50s and 60s. My grandmother, amazingly enough, was the Pomona California teacher of the year back in 1953. I
Read More
From Meow to Roar: A Journey in Advocacy
Last week, I had the opportunity to attend a public hearing for feedback on the 2016 draft mathematics & ELA standards in my community. The meeting was held in the cafeteria of what once was a middle school, that was
Read More
Growing Your Own: Fostering a Viable Mentoring Program
When I left the military, I immediately pursued a career in teaching. When I first began my teaching journey, I did not have a mentor teacher, and even before attending pre-service training, I started working at an alternative charter school
Read More
Dear Experienced Teacher:
Many of my blogger colleagues have posted back-to-school letters to new teachers – and rightfully so given the often-cited exodus of those newer to the teaching profession. Our newbies certainly need some overt love and cheerleading as they embark on
Read More