Advocating for My Students Requires Being Political on My Own Time

With election season upon us, like clockwork, the collective efforts to stifle the political opinions of educators has begun. Navigating this climate requires a nuanced…

4 Tips to Prioritize Students’ Dignity During Remote Learning

Have you ever revisited your philosophy of teaching? I don’t mean the progressive policies you ardently advocate for at faculty meetings or on Facebook; I…

COVID Changed Everything About My Classroom

I cried as I set up my classroom this year. This was no dainty, politely fighting-back-tears kind of cry. It was a violent, sobbing, heaving…

I Believe in School Choice, But Only When Those Choices Are Available to Everyone

Two weeks ago, the governor of my state directed $32 million dollars in funds from the federal Governor’s Emergency Education Relief (GEER) fund to create…

White Teachers, Our Whiteness Is Getting in Our Way

Since the murder of George Floyd, teacher leaders across America have sought to prove the necessity of antiracism in public education. And rightly so: from…

Educators Know the Challenges We Face Reopening Schools, So Listen to Them

I feel the need to admit that I am penning this piece after a heated phone call with a friend who is a teacher leader.…

The Last Will and Testament of the American Schoolteacher

On July 7, President Trump reiterated his desire to reopen schools in the fall, as well as his lack of understanding related to how diseases…

We Deserve Better Than Betsy DeVos and Her White Privilege Plan to Reopen Schools

My family was supposed to move back South this summer. That was the plan as soon as we left back in 2017.  I will never…

We Cannot Allow Reopening Schools to Be a Political Issue

After four years of being a largely forgotten policy area, PK-12 education suddenly became a national priority last week. Under ordinary circumstances, this should be…

I Am a Teacher. Here’s What Scares Me Most About COVID-19

I’m afraid of COVID-19. So are you. And so is everyone else. Fear is the only rational response given the current pandemic. Yet fear can…