When we discuss the failures of our education system, the conversation almost inevitably drifts toward teacher performance, standardized testing, or the need for a new curriculum. Yet, as we explored in our recent podcast episode, 062: Fix Public Sc…
052 WTF Education News: Promotion Policies, Armed Teachers, and Mandatory Anthem Singing In this post we delve into three education-related news stories that are either influential or just plain odd. Add your opinion in the comments section below. …
Are Transgender Students’ Rights at Odds with Parents’ Rights? The California lawsuit over transgender students’ rights policy in the Chino Valley Unified School District has sparked a heated debate about parents' rights and the rights of transgend…
If you had the pleasure (or displeasure) of teaching online during the Pandemic, you may not have developed a fondness for that medium. When I think about my classroom experience during that time, I certainly didn’t. All I can recall are black scre…
Mark Garcia isn’t your average new teacher—he’s a hometown hero with a trumpet in one hand and a vision in the other. As a fresh-faced music educator at Rialto High School, Mark is on a mission to transform his alma mater’s music program from a fadi…
Today, I'm sharing a story that's giving Romeo and Juliet a run for their money—minus the tragic ending and theatrical teen drama. Instead of Montagues versus Capulets, it's Democrats versus Republicans—in my house. And let me tell you, it's been 22…
Why do we send our children to school? To learn stuff? What stuff? Who decides which “stuff” is important and which can be set aside? How do we know they learned this stuff? In the long past, education meant learning which plants wouldn’t kill you …
First, this is just my opinion—for what that's worth, it’s the opinion of someone who’s been in the classroom for 33 years. I don’t know how students view grades in elementary school, but I get the feeling that parents are more focused on grades tha…
Go search on Google “number of new teachers who quit,” and you’ll find pages and pages (115,000,000 results in the search I did) of statistics that all read about the same: “Close to half of the teachers with five or fewer years of teaching have con…
A recent article in “The 74” caught my attention this week. It discussed how Tennessee and Michigan are currently debating removing the statute regarding retaining third graders who can't read at grade level to be retained. With state testin…