Our schools are critical tools for helping newly arrived immigrant students adjust to their new homes. What’s the best way to know how to help? Listen.
Jackie Brown has worked in high poverty elementary schools in the United States and abroad for twenty-eight years. Her career has taken her to Northern Ireland, Northern India and both Tribal and Public Schools in Washington State. She is dedicated to increasing awareness among educators, administrators and lawmakers about the effects of childhood trauma on brain development and on a student's ability to learn. Through yoga, mindfulness and love, Jackie has helped build resiliency in both herself and her students. When not teaching, Jackie spends her time backpacking, rebel rousing, cooking
“To err is human” but to reflect is divine. Teachers are human. We get frustrated, lose our tempers, make bad judgment calls and sometimes wish for a do-over button. Unfortunately, there isn't a magical reset button—or is there? Being an effective, successful teacher does not mean you never make mistakes. It just means we need to learn from them.
My ninth-grade Spanish students resisted my assignment to write about their cultures. “My family doesn’t have any cultural traditions,” one said. “My culture is that I’m just normal,” added another. “I don’t have a culture,” said another.
When Idaho Rep. Brent Crane characterized Rosa Parks as a champion of states’ rights in a recent debate, it was a troubling sign of what happens when a nation doesn’t work hard to remember its history.