My students are often shocked when I tell them the reality of Memorial Day. When I ask them about the holiday, they tend to believe it had its roots in World War II, the same war that was fought, in
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You Must Write Your Teacher Life
Why every teacher should be a writer.
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Monty Python and the Metaphorical Impalement
I’m confident that Rosa Parks didn’t “begin to have the difficult conversations” about bus seating.
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How Will We Walk the Talk? Part Two
“We did not put our ideas together. We put our purposes together.” Adam Kahane, Solving Tough Problems John Prosser is there. A teacher leader involved in policy-making. He began as a middle school teacher in the Seattle Tacoma area, then
Read MoreThe Obstinacy of Hope
I endeavor to explain how I see hope as essential to a teacher’s job, and yet not quite the syrupy-sweet thing that many interpret from Dickinson’s famous poem. It’s more beaky.
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A Special Relationship
Is the library the beating heart of your school? Ours is.
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How will we walk the talk? Part One
You’ve seen the cartoons. They’re very popular on teachers’ Facebook pages: A politician holding up a blank slate with the message, “This is the number of policy decisions teachers made when we gave them the chance.” A teacher standing in
Read MoreLaughing, But Not to the Bank
In a recent Gallup Poll teachers were found to have a relatively high sense of "well being" compared to other workers. In fact, teachers ranked second only to physicians on Gallup's "Life Evaluation Index" score. This score is a composite of
Read MoreWhy I Am Not Silent on Immigration
Juan's mom shows up, make-up smeared, holding his younger brother. My Spanish isn't great, but I can understand the message. We're going to Mexico. And if they don't want us there, it's back to El Salvador. His dad works construction while his
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Vulgar and Perilous Reforms
In 1790, conservative political philosopher Edmund Burke wrote in Reflections on the Revolution in France: “A state without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation.” Clay Shirky, expert on the role of social media and
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