Category: free education

The Pandemic May Have Eased, But There’s No Going Back for Districts Diana Laufenberg is a former teacher who currently serves as the executive director of Inquiry Schools, a nonprofit organization focused on supporting schools to become more inquiry-driven and project-based. She currently lives near the family farm where she grew up in rural Wisconsin:…

Teacher Expectations Play a Big Role in the Classroom. Here’s How Douglas Fisher, Ph.D., is a professor of educational leadership at San Diego State University and a teacher leader at Health Sciences High. He has published numerous articles on teaching and learning as well as books such as The Teacher Clarity Playbook, PLC+, Visible Learning…

Everyone Is Looking to Tutoring Right Now. But How Do We Make It Work? In seeking to answer the devastating effects of the pandemic, schools have turned to tutoring. The U.S. Department of Education, for instance, has launched the National Partnership for Student Success, recruiting 250,000 new tutors and mentors, and reports that 56 percent…

Want to Become a Better Teacher? Put Your Students Before the Content Jennifer Casa-Todd is currently a teacher-librarian, a former literacy consultant and English teacher, and the author of Social LEADia: Moving Students from Digital Citizenship to Digital Leadership. She uses technology and social media to learn and share learning, empower and celebrate others, and…

Lower the Bar, Stifle the Student Courtney Rose, Ed.D., is an educational consultant, culturally relevant/responsive educator and the founder of Ivy Rose Consulting through which she offers both individual and group services that foster critical dialogue, collaborative learning activities, and the exploration/development of innovative strategies to humanize teaching and learning. She currently serves as a…

Gratitude Practices at School That Work (and Why Some Don’t) A good teacher knows that establishing strong relationships with students is key not only to helping them succeed but also to supporting their own love for the job. One way to develop a rapport with students is to introduce gratitude practices at school. While research…

Stop Wasting Your Time on School Improvement Plans That Don’t Work. Try This Instead Too often, the required actions leaders must accomplish from year to year become acts of compliance rather than opportunities to learn. When this happens, leaders often feel more reactive than proactive and feel as though they can never engage in the…

How Attacks on Critical Race Theory Are Affecting Teachers Marissa Dillon teaches AP English Language and Composition in West Virginia. She has been an educator for eight years, including six years at the high school level and two as an adjunct at Marshall University: CRT – Three little letters that create responses from anger to…

Educators Will Teach ‘Truth About Oppression’ Despite CRT Attacks Margaret Thornton is a visiting assistant professor at Old Dominion University in Virginia. Her research interests include equity-focused school leadership development, school leadership for detracking, and critical race theory: This coming academic year, I will be working at a state institution, and I, like many educators,…

A DIY Approach to Boost STEM Engagement in Rural Schools From Walmart parking lots and youth centers to local schools, the GOBSmobile—named after the district’s goblin mascot and short for “Greater Opportunities for Better Success”—provided book loans; science experiments and demonstrations; storytime for younger students; and reading materials and supports for secondary students’ Advanced Placement…