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Dim the lights and get ready to learn with these TT-approved films!

When a country is compared to a continent, we effectively communicate that not all countries—or the people in them—are significant enough for us to name.

When I teach lessons about Martin Luther King Jr., I always wonder exactly how students will connect with the events and themes. My adult students are refugees and immigrants from different cultural backgrounds. Some of them were cultural minorities in their countries. Others are experiencing racial discrimination for the first time in the United States.

Carlisha certainly has her share of challenges. I work with her both in small groups and one-on-one. Sometimes she falls asleep, which she attributes to her diabetes medication. Some faculty members speculate that she is faking because she doesn’t want to do the work.

When JT Eberhard of the Secular Student Alliance (SSA), an organization providing support to nontheistic students, received a letter from a teacher bragging about blocking formation of an atheist club, the lack of a return address didn’t slow him down. He used the email address provided by the sender to locate the teacher and alert administrators.

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.

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