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A student pleads with me at the beginning of class to bring an electronic reader to class? “I’m almost finished reading my book and I want to finish it, but it’s on my (electronic reader name), the students says. “Please? I’m at a really good part.” At first, this appears to be every language arts teacher’s dream; students begging to continue reading things they’ve read on their own time for fun. But, then come the problems.

What would it look like if schools offered every child daily opportunities to do something in which they excel? What if, instead of just celebrating academic successes, we highlighted the unique talents and joys of all our students?

This TT staffer, not long out of the classroom herself, shares some encouraging words for fellow educators who are grappling with the news and their own emotions today.

Envisioning schools that affirm and protect Black students means reckoning with a long history of racist punishment.

America’s schools are more segregated now than they were in the late 1960s.

The Comic Book Project encourages students to address social issues in their lives and schools with art and creativity.

Like many, if not most, I had a rough first year as a teacher. I was 21 years old and full of passion and desire but little else. I had survived student teaching on the Navajo Reservation for six months, but arrived on the other side of that experience with much to learn. I was teaching two-hour blocks of seventh-grade history and English. I was struggling on almost every level in almost every area.