Claiming to Not See Race Leads to Inequity in Education
A post about anti-racism. This post originally appeared in Education Week’s Classroom Q&A on February 9, 2020. (This is the fourth post in a five-part series. You can see Part One here, Part Two here, and Part Three here.) The new question-of-the-week is: What are the best ways to respond to educators who say they “don’t see race” when […]
School Culture Quiz
School culture impacts everything we do as educators, and reflects our ability to meaningfully engage students. How is the school culture in your building? Below are questions to help you reflect. 1. Think about the first-person people see when they enter one of your schools. Does this person accurately represent the tone and mood of […]
Cell Phones in Schools: One No-Nonsense Nurturer’s Perspective
I train coaches in schools around the country to support teachers with student engagement. This year, more than any year before, I have been consistently surprised by how many students have their phones out in middle and high school classrooms, and how difficult it is for teachers to get students to put them away. For […]
Repost: Every Teen Needs a Champion
This post originally appeared in ASCD Express on May 9, 2019. “Every child deserves a champion: an adult who will never give up on them, who understands the power of connection, and insists they become the best they can possibly be.” — Rita Pierson While teenagers sometimes act as if they know everything and don’t need anyone, […]
Repost: How to Have ‘Courageous Conversations’ About Race That Can Help End Inequities in Our Schools
Courageous Conversations Training This post originally appeared in The 74 on September 18, 2017. With the election of our first black president, many clung to hope that we had entered a post-racial America. The recent events in Charlottesville proved that we are not as far along in this journey as we had hoped, a […]
Repost: Do You Care Enough to Save a Life?
This post originally appeared in ASCD Inservice on February 27, 2017. As a turnaround principal of a high school in Washington, D.C, I lost more students to violence than I ever would have imagined. After losing five students in one year, I made a vow that I would tell all of my students, especially young […]
Who Can We Run To? Supporting Black Males in the Classroom and Beyond
Supporting Black Males in the Classroom In a country where one in three black males will be incarcerated at some point in their lives (Equal Justice Initiative, 2018), who do black males run to for support? The statistics are alarming. According to NAACP.org, African Americans/blacks are incarcerated at more than five times the rate of […]
Caring About vs. Caring For
Travel to schools across the country, and you’ll see it’s clear that teachers are working hard and truly care about their students. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be doing this job day after day. When I walk through buildings and talk with teachers, I hear and sense this. However, when it comes to what care actually looks […]
Punishment or Restorative Practices: The Only Two Choices in School Climate?
For more than a year, I have been struck by the ongoing school discipline “wars.” Sometimes the fight seems as much a war of semantics as of approaches and beliefs. Perhaps it is not a new fight, but for the first time in my two-plus decades in education, I feel we could be on the […]
Top 8 Tips for New Teachers That You Probably Haven’t Considered
Here are some teacher guidance tips for new teachers. Being a first-year teacher is rewarding, challenging, and filled with lessons that you plan for your students and that you learn from yourself. While your first year is likely to include late night planning, anxiety with each classroom observation, and tons of trial and error, there […]
