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This teacher was prepared for her ‘speak up’ moment—and you can be, too!

What does the rise in hate groups and hate crimes say about our American history and American democracy when all lives should matter?

One-sixth of American children live in poverty. Experienced teachers offer a formula for change.

Emotions can be frightening for all of us, especially for children. But if students don’t have the vocabulary to express their feelings, they may turn to acting out. This fails to resolve the feelings and makes a teacher’s life much more difficult.

An Arab-Jewish cooperative school strikes a balance for coexistence.

Reader reactions: You talk middle school activism, pronouns and word choice.

Today’s conventional wisdom is that English language learners (ELLs) need to master English as quickly as possible. Everything else is secondary. If these students remain fluent in their primary languages, good for them. If not, no big deal.

Thirty years ago, I heard the news that John Lennon had been shot. Every year since, the morning news on NPR reminds me again of that day. I was a young, second-year teacher then, with four sections of grade nine “World Cultures” and one section of A.P. United States history. Mine was a Catholic school, and we’d had Monday, December 8 off because it was a holy day, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.

My third-hour class was a challenge. The students were young, the class was large, and most students just needed a required fine art credit. Not great art lovers, they spent their considerable energy doing everything but their art projects.

In the wake of a convicted rapist’s early release, now is a good time to reinforce with students that rape is a cultural problem that all of us must stand against.