There Is a Right Way to Process Current Events With Your Students

The certification of the electoral votes from the 2020 election was already going to be a contentious issue, but the events that transpired go far…

Our Students Need More Than Our Outrage, They Need Dialogue

On the afternoon of last Wednesday’s attempted insurrection at the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., Twitter was a refuge. While living and working in…

We Have to Teach About What Happened at the Capitol Yesterday

I sat yesterday after school watching the news, Twitter and my email, mortified by the actions unfolding in our nation’s capital (and across the nation),…

Statues Are Only One Kind of Monument to White Supremacy

Every year, I ask my students to identify phenomena in our world that are both imagined and real. In other words, what are some things…

This Juneteenth I’m Challenging Educators to Emancipate Themselves From a Colonized Curriculum

When Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, this marked the end of slavery in the United States … that is what a lot of people…

Don’t Just #RunWithMaud, #Teach4Maud

I laced up my sneakers after quietly rolling out of bed, hoping not to wake up my son, who often sneaks into my room at…

Black History Is American History and Should Be Celebrated All Year Long

As a Minnesotan, February is a signal that the warmth of spring is so close yet so far away (seriously, last Thursday the high was two…

3 Tips for Talking With Your Students About World Events

The news has been quite sensational lately. As teachers, oftentimes, our first instinct is to hide the news under the guise of “protecting” our students…

When Disney’s ‘Frozen II’ Represents Indigenous Peoples Better Than Elementary Schools, There’s a Problem

As I sat with my 7-year-old daughter and her friends in a movie theater for a showing of “Frozen II,” I was fascinated. No, it wasn’t…

We Can Tell the Truth About Thanksgiving to Our Preschoolers, Too

Since urging my preschool to eliminate Columbus Day from the school calendar, I continuously contemplate how to teach about Native Americans, and especially Thanksgiving, in the…