Articles

A couple of months ago, a student pulled me aside to ask for help with a job application. As a teacher working with adult immigrants and refugees, I hear this request fairly often. After class, we discussed the job she wanted –housekeeping for one of the large hotel chains in the area. Paper applications were no longer accepted.

Classroom discussions are usually dominated by a few “alpha” students eager to participate. We can all envision those students. Hands stretched high, fingers waving, literally or figuratively saying, “Ooh, pick me, pick me.” But how do you get that student who is desperately trying not to make eye contact with you—or anyone else in the classroom—involved in the conversation?

Many in the LGBT community love sports. Sports, though, have rarely returned the affection. Basketball star Kobe Bryant highlighted the problem when he made an anti-gay slur in a televised game last April. In sports

Alternative certification gives educators a different route to the classroom. Does it make them fish out of water once they get there?

Reader responses: you talk social media, bullying and speaking English.

Q: Some of my world history students have taken to drawing Confederate battle flags on their homework assignments. What should I do?

Toni Giarnese found inspiration in her job thanks to a disabled boy who looked a lot like a knight in shining armor.

Administrator William Joslyn says modeling tolerance is key for school leaders. “If we don’t walk the walk, we can’t expect others to.”

Teaching Tolerance director Maureen Costello looks back on our 20th birthday.

Did America’s most divisive war start over slavery or states’ rights? Too many educators get it wrong.