Search

Yaki struggles to feel at home in her new country and her new school, but her creativity and Mayan culture help to ease the transition.

The day after Valentine’s Day 2008, I watched my 1st period students file into the room. They were uncharacteristically quiet. When the bell rang, they all looked at me, waiting to hear how I might make sense of the previous night’s tragedy when Steven Philip Kazmierczak opened fire in Cole Hall on Northern Illinois University’s campus, shooting 21 people and killing five.

As I head back to the classroom, I think about the last school year. In the second-to-last week of school, my fifth-grade classroom was 90 degrees, with no air conditioning. My students were sitting together, helping each other, laughing, struggling and having fun. At the beginning of the year, they were unsure of each other. They smiled politely but kept to themselves or the friends they knew and never asked for help. So what had changed?

Join the movement to prevent bullying!

Many educators are hesitant to teach about national politics and the 2016 election.

This educator highlights seven practices she uses to engage students who miss class due to poor health, familial responsibilities or emotional or mental health issues.