Calling for patriotic education is the next step in the politics of lies. If we truly believe in individual freedom, we are now faced with the choice of who we will be as people, whether or not we deserve that freedom. You don’t have to teach people to love their country if that country deserves to be loved.
Read MoreParents can help restore their children’s sense of self and belonging through storytelling activities. Storytelling is a human pursuit that crosses all cultures and generations and can help restore some of the missing elements in our children’s lives today.
Read MoreMercedes K. Schneider, Ph.D. holds degrees in secondary English and German (B.S., Louisiana State, 1991), guidance and counseling (M.Ed., West Georgia, 1998), and applied statistics and research methods (Ph.D., Northern Colorado, 2002). She is an unwavering advocate for public education and teaches high school in her native southern Louisiana.
Read MoreMonica Taylor is an urban teacher educator, social justice advocate, and parent activist. She is currently a professor and deputy chair of the Department of Secondary and Special Education at Montclair State University. Her latest book Playhouse: Optimistic Stories Of Real Hope For Families With Little Children is now available.
Read MoreNo matter your viewpoint on the coronavirus, for those who care about democratic public schools, our fears merge when it comes to worrying that technology will replace teachers and end those schools. Covid-19 is the perfect storm, and Prenda micro-schools are the prototype. These are schools that focus on commercial tech programs without real teachers.
Read MoreIn April, the editors of the Oxford English Dictionary did something unusual. For the previous 20 years, they had issued quarterly updates to announce new words and meanings selected for inclusion. These updates have typically been made available in March, June, September and December.
Read MoreScience is part of the wonderful tapestry of human culture, intertwined with things like art, music, theater, film and even religion. These elements of our culture help us understand and celebrate our place in the universe.
Read MoreTwo great videos to kick off our video series featuring Steven Nelson on education, “On Learning Through Experience” and “Good Experiential Education”. Steven Nelson is the author of “First, Do No Harm: Progressive Education in a Time of Existential Risk”.
Read MoreClimate change might be the most urgent issue of our day, both politically and in terms of life on Earth. There is mounting awareness that the global climate is a matter for public action.
Read MoreWhether teaching at a safe distance in school, or online, or some combination of the two, teachers and students face a unique challenge this year. While reading instruction for our most vulnerable readers will necessarily look much different from normal practice, many best practices can still be used effectively. An instructional design I would recommend is Read Aloud, Read Along, Read Alone, Read Again.
Read MoreAlthough there’s a growing number of U.S. communities that will begin the 2020-2021 school year virtually, many others, like mine, are resuming in-person learning or using a hybrid format that combines both a distance approach and classroom instruction.
Read MoreFeeling unsafe at school is not only a product of name-calling, slurs or getting pushed in the hallway. It’s also related to implicit bias and microaggressions against LGBTQ students. Implicit bias refers to negative beliefs about a group derived from attitudes or stereotypes that occur largely outside of conscious awareness and control.
Read MoreElection campaigns inspire hope, but they can also quickly lead to political despair. During the last two elections, America’s polarized citizens experienced significant swings between hope and despair.
Read MoreThe question is: how do cooperative kids get to be that way? What is the secret sauce that feeds a sense of community responsibility over personal gratification? How can we have pride and true excellence, while staying within the guardrails of kindness and collaboration?
Read MoreDividing ourselves into smaller and smaller fiefdoms only empowers the virus. If we all try to fight Covid-19 individually, we will lose. We have to understand that what’s good for our friends and neighbors is in our individual interest, too. We have to care about our fellow human beings.
Read MoreOnce again, she fails to focus on the real risk. Covid-19 is not going to discriminate between schools. It doesn’t care if students attend the most expensive private school, the holiest parochial school, the poorest charter school, or a wealthy segregated public school in Georgia.
Read MoreWith the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic getting worse in most of the country, a growing number of school districts from San Francisco to Atlanta have determined that a return to daily in-person instruction isn’t yet safe or viable. They aim to to stick with remote learning as the school year gets underway.
Read MoreNow that we’re spending so much time at home, I predict that it won’t be just our houseplants and pets that will thrive. Upending the tightly scheduled days of parents and children has provided more time for an activity that allows children to flourish: play.
Read MoreTeaching is challenging in the best of times. Now teachers are being asked and told to do more than ever: prepare in-person, online and hybrid lessons, allay students’ anxieties, and risk their own and their families’ health while serving students and families, often in communities where the pandemic isn’t anywhere near under control.
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