I met Xavier at the EDXEDNYC conference on my birthday last year. As the shirt he’s wearing in his photo illustrates, he was a student volunteer and his true spirit of service shone bright. He helped me set up for my conference, showed me where lunch was being held, and answered all of my questions.… Continue reading I’m Afraid I Will Have To Abandon My Educational Journey: A Student Speaks.
Summer is here and I’m exhausted. Teaching, while extremely rewarding, is equally as draining — sometimes more so. Every year, it becomes more and more apparent to me that a huge part of why I’m so exhausted has to do with the shortage of parental involvement in their children’s / my students’ academic lives. Dear… Continue reading Dear Parents: Your Expectations Of Teachers Should Match Your Commitment As A Parent.
It’s the end of the school year and while most teachers are cleaning out their classrooms and packing their books safely away, I am excited about ordering new books to bolster the diversity and equity of my classroom library. (Here’s some tips on why that’s important.) I had one particular book in mind, Anna’s Test,… Continue reading Classrooms Need Books Featuring Children of Incarcerated Parents. Here’s One That Fits the Bill!
Teachers, our students need us. Let me make that statement more personal: My students need and appreciate me. How do I know? They told me so in birthday cards that they wrote for me last Friday. For the first time in my career, I had a student with the same birthday as me (June 7th)… Continue reading “I’ve Been Hard to Manage But You’ve Taught Me So Much.” A Teacher Considers Her Impact.
It’s that time of year when the school year is coming to yet another end. While some students exuberantly await the start of their summer vacation, others are scrambling, beseeching, and working hard at last to hopefully avoid summer school attendance or worse — getting retained in their current grade, otherwise known as “getting left… Continue reading To Promote Or Not To Promote: That Is The Question.
We need more diversity in the teaching pool of the NYC Department of Education. It’s just too white and that shouldn’t be a newsflash to anyone. I’ve said it before and I will continue to strike that same note and will not stop speaking and writing this truth until the paradigm shifts and more teachers… Continue reading Dear Chancellor Carranza: Keep Making Them Mad!
Legacy, legacy, legacy, legacy Black excellence baby, you gon’ let ’em see Legacy, legacy, legacy, legacy Black excellency, baby, let ’em see” Jay-Z, “Legacy” I’m up early this morning and these lyrics by one of the most profoundly impactful rappers of our time takes on a whole new meaning for me and resonates deeply within… Continue reading Ode to My Son, Christian Hemans, On His College Graduation
It’s been six months since John has been home and the question that most people ask about his reentry focuses on whether or not he’s found a job. That’s telling in and of itself but that’s another post for another day. For John, securing employment once home from prison has always been of the utmost… Continue reading The Mismatch Between Prison Education and Actual Employment: A Real Life Account.
Around this time every school year, I reflect upon my professional glows and grows as well as my students’ academic and social progress. This year is no different. The four key things I learned this 2018-2019 school year are: (1) It’s beneficial to build relationships with all students in my school — whether I am… Continue reading Of the Four Key Things I’ve Learned This School Year, This One Stands Out The Most.
We haven’t heard much about the undocumented children being detained in U.S. concentration camps on the news any more, but I haven’t forgotten about them. I hope you haven’t either. We cannot afford to forget about or neglect our children — all children. All of them have value. All of them have futures. All of… Continue reading In a Sanctuary City Like NYC, Are Our Most Vulnerable Students Safe from Harm?
