To Support Your LGBTQ+ Students, Love Them and Give Them Someone to Look Up To

Every student deserves a role model with whom they can relate. For many students, literature and curriculum are resources they can use to find role…

Why We Need LGBTQ+ Curricula

In 2018, GLSEN’s national school climate study indicated that 59.5% of LGBTQ students “felt unsafe at school because of their sexual orientation and 44.6% felt…

Think Economics Is Boring? It’s Actually the Key to Good Citizenship

When teachers, parents and students think about civics in the classroom, first and foremost they imagine social studies, Constitution Day and the Pledge of Allegiance.…

It’s OK, You Can Teach For America

In 2013, Sandra Korn, then a senior at Harvard and a contributor to the student newspaper The Crimson, wrote an article telling her peers “Don’t…

Back to School, Back to Basics With Parent-Teacher Partnerships

The smell of education is in the air. Parents have bought uniforms and school supplies are packed up and ready to go. Teachers have completed…

If We Care for Kids, We Can’t Shut Down Teachers Who Truly Want to Do Better by Them

This teacher said a thing and I thought all hell would break loose.  It happened last week when my 8 Black Hands crew recorded a…

Here’s How Trump Is Making It Harder to Integrate Schools

This summer, integrated schools heated up as a campaign issue when Kamala Harris called out Joe Biden for his 1970s stance on mandated busing as…

Go Slow at the Beginning of the Year So Your Students Can Go Fast Later

Welcome back to a new year of students and teaching! For some of you, this will be your first group of students and they will…

Don’t Forget, Not Every Student Had Opportunities for Enrichment This Summer

This summer, my students and I learned that blue crabs are really feisty, but mosquitos are even feistier.  For two weeks in June, I chaperoned…

We Can Teach Black History and LGBTQ History at the Same Time. In Fact, We Should.

My social media feeds were drenched with homophobia this week. People were saying how they really felt about my state, Illinois, joining other states mandating…