Blog
The Answer is in the Room - Making a Case for Community-Driven School Transformation
Educators wear a lot of hats, both historically and presently. And that’s not just a metaphor, it’s actually the perfect description of the way teachers have to move, moment by moment, between instructor, mediator, data analyst, artist, scientist, professional organizer, project manager, and back to instructor, all while responding to all the real-time needs of 20 or 25 or sometimes 30 young people in their care. Not to mention the rapid advancement of technology tools (do we integrate them? Ban them? Both? Neither?) and the grief and challenge of educating through and during a global pandemic! The challenges facing educators - and education at large - often feel insurmountable.
Rethinking the Education Gap: A Critical Analysis of Higher Education and Teacher Preparation Programs
In today's society, the persistent achievement gap in education remains a pressing issue that demands attention and proactive solutions. Despite efforts to bridge this gap, misconceptions and oversights in higher education and teacher preparation programs often hinder progress. To address the complexities of closing the education gap, it is essential to critically examine and reevaluate the roles of higher education institutions and teacher preparation programs.
SOS Zebras: Pine Bluff Junior High School Students Take Initiative to Focus on Emotional Well-being and Provide Peer Support
After various losses within the community and just a tumultuous start to the year, they saw emotions bubbling up and students who had clear and evident needs around coping with grief and reality, and they saw a teaching staff that cared but had no additional time. So, they took it upon themselves to launch “Save OurselveS, or SOS Zebras,” a student-led group for coping with grief and implementing strategies to move forward with their daily needs.
What Studios Have Taught Me About Teaching Today
Luke Bush, a veteran teacher at Northern Cass High School, discusses what he has learned about teaching today from the Studios he has participated in throughout the year.
One Drop: The Power of a Targeted Approach to Transformation Across Wyoming
The goal of the RIDE initiative is the transformation of systems, structures, practices, and polices to become more student-centered. However, transformation is a word heavy in meaning and implications that often feels too nebulous to actualize. It can either feel like trying to catch a waterfall, or like the onslaught of a myriad of top down prescriptive mandates that will sap the creativity of professional educators and ignore the values and voices of local communities. The approach to supporting transformation in Wyoming’s RIDE Pilot Districts is different and can serve as a model of sustainable change that is personalized and responsive to local communities.
Which Story Will You Feed?
For every person who says, “The education system is crumbling,” there is a teacher painstakingly researching new ways to meet the evolving needs of all their students.
For every person who says, “No one wants to go into teaching right now,” there is a student-teacher methodically testing ideas that will become tomorrow’s best practices.
Unleash Your Thoughts: Access to Learning to Read is a Civil Rights Issue.
Yes, there is a period at the end of that title, because it is a statement. It is a fact. Jenny Mackenzie and Levar Burton wrote and produced an amazing film, “The Right to Read,” that addresses this issue. “The Right to Read shares the stories of an NAACP activist, a teacher, and two American families who fight to provide our youngest generation with the most foundational indicator of life-long success: the ability to read.” If you haven’t had an opportunity to view the film, I completely recommend you take an hour out of your day, if you have a screening available in your area or can request a screening for you and your friends, coworkers and family. No one is too young or too old to get involved.
Stories and Ecosystems at #Aurora23
So many of us were talking about story at #Aurora23, and so many of us were talking about ecosystems. Even better, so many of us were talking about the two themes in tandem – how the stories and ecosystems reflected and amplified each other. By pointing out how others are talking about these two big ideas, I hope to help you consider these themes and how deeply related they are to each other.