Articles

Despite efforts of college and university admissions people, high-achieving students from small towns and rural areas are being left out of the matriculation process because of poverty.

The greatest achievement for this Teacher of the Year is the daily practice of empathy.

This teacher helps students find commonalities between their own complex lives and the experiences of children a world away.

Are school uniform policies a perfect fit for all students?

I recently confronted my prejudices. After teaching for many years in a low-income, high-violence area of Oakland, Calif., I decided to do some private tutoring. I sought to avoid the stress of politics in the district and the uncertainty of having a new principal every year for over eight years. Although I had outlasted all of the teachers I had started working with, I felt guilty because this was the population I wanted to serve.

I have always considered myself a thoughtful and considerate teacher. I try to understand where my students are coming from. I want my students to feel safe and respected. Last year, one of my students taught me how even the best intentions can miss the mark.

When I was a kid, I attended two different elementary schools in the same town. They were very different. One was large, suburban and within walking distance to downtown. The other was very small, outside the city limits in an agricultural area and had a significant number of Spanish-speaking students.

This year our school district launched an iPad initiative for the kindergarten teachers and students at our Title I elementary school.

Many suburban schools are facing what for them is a new problem—poverty.

It’s undeniable. Technology is in the classroom in new and instructive ways. Flipped classrooms and interactive instruction videos created by teachers for use by students at home are becoming more popular. Teachers are emerging as bloggers, creating classroom websites and using other digital products. Technology offers the potential to level the playing field for students without direct access to resources available to other students in more affluent schools.