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?
The phrase “school-to-prison-pipeline” is, for many, an impersonal educational buzzword like “rigor” and “standardized tests.” For others like me, it is an educational and societal mishap happening right before their eyes. Even more damaging, it is a wrathful system that’s swallowed children up and they now live with its dire consequences. These children are disproportionately … Continue reading “The School To Prison Pipeline Is Very Personal To Me”: A Teacher’s Plea To Destroy It.
This is a guest post by Kraig Knibb, a doctoral student at Stony Brook University in the School of Social Welfare. He is a social justice researcher, with a specific focus on education, culture, and power among students of African-American descent. He attributes his penchant for social justice to his Panamanian mother and his emphasis on… Continue reading The Case for Afrocentric Schools: Can Traditional Schools Fairly Serve “Distinct” Students?
On Valentine’s Day when we celebrate love, it’s hard for me to wrap my mind around where the love could have possibly been in the hearts and minds of the teachers who allowed nooses to be displayed in their Long Island middle school classrooms. According to The Grio and several other news source outlets, “Three… Continue reading I Think We Have Integrated Ourselves into Oblivion
Of the 55 million students who attend U.S. schools, 46 percent will experience a mental health disorder in their lifetime. And one in five of our young people live with a mental health condition, but less than half receive treatment. These are staggering statistics that speak volumes about an epidemic facing our school children, especially… Continue reading Mental Illness in Our Schools: A National Crisis
Yesterday in one of my classes, an announcement came over the loudspeaker informing students that the bathrooms were closed and that they needed to remain in their classrooms. Upon hearing that, I locked the front classroom door. It was an instinctual response to the directive given. As I locked the door, my students asked me… Continue reading The Trauma-Informed Classroom: Six Years After The Sandy Hook Massacre
