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On rainy, dreary days, an announcement breaks into my class around 11 a.m. “Please excuse the interruption. Recess will be held indoors today.” From around the room, there are scattered cheers. My students are often happy to have indoor recess. I’m happy, too, because I see this as a positive time for my students to build friendships and interact. It wasn’t always this way.

Name-calling is pervasive in our culture. According to advocacy organization Mental Health America, teens hear anti-gay slurs approximately 26 times a day. Other anti-bullying websites such as Bullying Statistics.org cite name-calling as the most common type of harassment in schools.

Unfortunately, encounters like the one in this issue’s “Story Corner” happen often; in a split second, we must decide whether to confront a hateful or biased statement and what to say. Below is a list of authentic

Technology is appealing to most students, but virtual learning presents advantages and disadvantages when we have equity in mind. Get your students thinking about what a virtual education really means.

The TT audience weighed in on a school dilemma ripped from the headlines: ‘Students petition to display Confederate flag at school, turn in 300 signatures.’

It can be daunting but also amusing to set the context for Harper Lee’s classic To Kill A Mockingbird. If my students thought the 1992 L.A. Riots were “back in the day,” imagine how long ago the 1930’s feel to them. Not only that, but when I refer to the southern United States, several of them think I really mean “a place near L.A.”To conquer this, we spent a period locating Alabama on the map, sipping sweet southern tea and checking out Dorothea Lange’s Depression-era photos. I even play a compilation of tunes that were popular then, including A Tisket, A Tasket by Ella Fitzgerald. Overall, we have fun as we look back.

I lean against my classroom door, fielding questions about last night’s homework and passing out early morning hellos. I watch students disperse into their assigned first-period classes. As I steal a quick sip of my morning coffee, I find myself pausing at this thought: A supposedly unbiased computer system serendipitously placed our students into their respective classes, but is this all there is to mixing it up? No.

When I took the opportunity to co-teach a mixed-grade level coed dance class, I expected some of the boys to be reluctant to participate in the ballet portion for fear of being seen as gay or at the very least feminine. To cut this off before it started, I used a Teaching Tolerance lesson plan that allows students to explore gender stereotypes. I put labels on each student’s back with the name of a profession. I assigned traditionally male careers to girls and traditionally female careers to boys. Students had to figure out their profession by asking yes or no questions of their classmates. Afterwards, they reflected on their reaction to the assigned profession. This activity set the stage for breaking down stereotypes as we also introduced ballet as a dance form.

Requiring the ACT increases college accessibility—but more support is needed to create a school-wide culture of achievement.