Some Hard-Earned Advice for Teachers Who Want to Be Heard

Five years ago, I was named Minnesota’s Teacher of the Year.  The months and years following are a time in my life I now refer…

We Can Do Better Than Just Thanking Teachers With Free Coffee and Donuts

One Teacher Appreciation Week years ago, we each remember being thrilled to find letters from our principal in our school mailboxes thanking us for all…

How Our Rural School Is Closing the Opportunity Gap and Preparing the Next Generation of Teachers

Teacher shortages in Wisconsin, and across the country, have a stranglehold on the profession. Enrollment in educator prep programs in Wisconsin is down 30 percent.…

No Teacher Should Be an Island

I didn’t quite understand what it meant to be an “island” until I started teaching eight years ago. For years, I was the only United…

It’s Time to Transform Our Schools, and Teachers Should Lead It

I’ve always known the education system is a like a large, slow freighter. Teaching in a public school for two decades reveals to anyone that…

We Can Make the First Year of Teaching Better. Here’s How.

When Barack Obama was elected president in November 2008, I was living in Chicago and working as a computer security engineer. After hearing Obama’s passionate…

It Takes a Good School Leader to Know When a Teacher Is Struggling

Last year I went from managing students in the classroom to managing adults. That shift was just as hard as the one from managing myself…

Business Knows It, the Military Knows It and Now It’s Time We Know It in Education: Leadership Matters

We’ve seen it happen too many times to count. Every two to three years, state and district education chiefs across the country step down and,…

I’m in Bangladesh Right Now to Help Students With Special Needs and I Won’t Come Back the Same Teacher I Was Before

I’ve been offered one of those life-changing opportunities where I know that the person who I was when I left won’t be the same person…

It’s Damn Near Impossible to Be a Teacher-Leader and Still Teach

A few weeks ago, I was out of the classroom. When I came back, the substitute teacher’s notes were not good. “I wish I could…