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Answers to your toughest social justice questions.

Every marking period I contact the parents of my most remarkable students to tell them how great their kids are. I do this for a few reasons. Too often, my attention is consumed with kids who need refocusing, redirecting and all the other IEP-mandated practices teachers do anyway. But mostly I contact the remarkable students because I’ve noticed that the kids who do good work often go unacknowledged.

Katie is the student I imagined all my students would be like when I first started teaching. In my fantasy, all my students were motivated, conscientious and ready to independently tackle any challenge I proposed. In this same fantasy, I was not the wild-haired, one-legged juggler I’ve become, but rather a calm force of wisdom and benevolence.

Students of conflict resolution laud facilitative mediation for its cultural responsiveness.

When you hear about a school bully, you might automatically picture that big-for-his-age fifth grade boy or a teen girl whose manner of dress and speech makes her look and sound a bit rough and tough. All too often, however, school bullies are actually the grown-ups in charge.

I love teaching in a co-op with other homeschoolers and former public educators. We are an incredibly diverse group—racially, ability-wise and religiously. We also incorporate diversity in our guest speakers and field trips. The first day of school this year, we were chanting and doing art projects with Tibetan monks. So how do we make Mix It Up at Lunch Day unique with this gorgeous hodgepodge of people that is already used to joining together?