At its best, education broadens the way students view the world and their place in it.
Photo;https://www.education.ne.gov/ When the current school year began, no one knew it would end this way. Now, schools across the country have closed amid a pandemic, many of which are closed for the remainder of the school year. As a result, teachers are devising creative long-distance lessons, students are learning from home, and parents have been …
Photo:https://www.compassionaterochestermn.org/ In these surreal times, with virtually everyone either under a stay-at-home mandate or voluntarily quarantining, daily life has taken on a completely new look and feel. In the process, education has not only been transformed into a long-distance experience but also now truly does take a village to undertake. Many students are learning on …
Continue reading "Adding Compassion to the Long-Distance Curriculum"
Photo: https://blogcea.org/2016/01/25/cea-proposes-new-evaluation-guidelines-to-promote-student-learning/ Once upon a time, great learning took place in school. New concepts, developing creativity, designing experiments, and discovering talents were all part of the learning. This was “great” as in fun, not “great” as in big and boring. Best of all, students enjoyed the process, and teachers enjoyed facilitating it. Then along came …
Continue reading "Forget About Tests. Let’s Get Back to Learning"
Photo:https://www.hrc.org/blog/breaking-barriers-this-black-history-month Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman—these names are virtually synonymous with Black History Month. After all, their contributions to United States history are indisputably noteworthy, firmly cementing their place in curricula across the country. However, it’s time to rethink this central focus. There’s so much more to the history of African …
Photo: http://saintdrexel.org/resources/caring-connections/ It’s the middle of the school year. At this point, the enthusiasm that started your year may have waned a bit, dimmed by a combination of weariness and reality. After all, you know your students quite well by now. You know who is eager to comply and who is a behavioral challenge. The …
Photo:http://neatoday.org/2019/09/17/banning-black-hair-discrimination/ Long or short, braided or pony-tailed, blow-dried or worn exactly as it grows from the scalp—hair is so closely tied to individual identity that it stirs emotions. It’s a form of self-expression. That’s why so-called dress codes that are being wielded as weapons against students and their hairstyles are so egregious. Even if you’ve …
Photo: http://lacomadre.org/2017/06/strong-school-culture-can-secret-ingredient-successful-school/ Some schools just seem to beckon to you as you enter. Providing a sense of belonging and acceptance, they offer a warm atmosphere that is at once comforting and vibrant. Genuine learning occurs in those schools along with a spirit of support and camaraderie that you can feel throughout the building. Most important, …
Continue reading "Does Your School Culture Match Your Values?"
Photo: wishtv.com Consider this scenario: Laughing and talking, a group of students enters the cafeteria and heads for the lunch line. As they fill their trays and step forward in line, one student is singled out. His tray is taken by a cafeteria worker and replaced with a cheese sandwich and a container of milk …
Photo:https://okpolicy.org/oklahomas-new-third-grade-retention-law/ If you reflect on your own third grade experience, you might recall a favorite teacher or subject, a best friend or a nemesis. But you probably don’t recall third grade as a watershed year. Yet, when it comes to reading competency, researchers say it is. In fact, one study indicates that reading below grade …
When I taught high school students in the early 2000s, I once asked a new teacher how things were going. Her responses remain etched in my mind even now. She said the school was much better than she had been told at the school district’s orientation meeting. Asked what she had been told, she replied, …
Denise Fawcett Facey 