Dear Teachers Speak Up friends– I’ve just posted a third story from a teacher, on my Patch.com blog. Chicago teacher Robert Plonka describes the power of graphic novels vs classics in the classroom. We’re not out to denigrate the great literature of the past. But as Plonka explains so vividly, students also need to engage […]

It can be really hard to get positive education stories into the big newspapers. But I’ve started a blog to publish great teacher stories on the Patch news website – at least from the Chicago area. If you haven’t checked out Patch, it’s a system with separate news sites for various local neighborhoods across the […]

Education and poverty add up to a social justice issue . That’s why I keep writing these posts and urging more teachers to speak up. Increases in U.S. childhood poverty by 4.5 million over 11 years are unconscionable, as the numbers are showing. Can education help? Studies by the Chicago Consortium on School Research show […]

It’s Memorial Day, when we honor fallen soldiers and eat barbecue. But we educators are never quite off duty, at least in our heads. So let’s celebrate teachers who ARE speaking up. First, harking back to Teacher Appreciation week, Janet Ilko, on the National Writing Project iAnthology, honored our Teachers Speak Up effort (Many thanks, […]

Dear TSU followers– I’ve been developing this website for nearly a year now. Lots of people tell me it’s great . However I haven’t seen it lead to many more teachers writing and publishing pieces that better inform the public about our work. Or if it has, then people aren’t telling me. Yes, I’ve shared […]

Wow! I’m stunned! Dozens of New York Teachers are writing to critique a new ELA test created by Pearson publishers. Their comments are posted at a new website created by Lucy Calkins and the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project. Judging from the teachers’ copious reports and analyses (we counted 59 teacher responses plus a […]

It’s still Teacher Appreciation Week, and people can hear great teacher stories at Story Corps so go to their site and listen now. And you can record still more of these at the Story Corps booths in Chicago, Atlanta and San Francisco. Just make a reservation on their website. We especially like these because most […]

on Teacher Appreciation Day, what better activity than to get parents, friends, community members, legislators, and others to learn from teachers about why they teach. So go to the Learning Matters website page on “Why I Teach,” and enjoy, add your own explanation — but also use Facebook, Twitter, email, and any other tool you […]

Here’s a blog post by Joey Starnes, a teacher who goes to Washington to make her voice heard there. And she keeps her blog going, as well, to talk to the world about education. I’m not sure how many people in the general public read such teacher blogs — but at least she’s putting her […]

OK, I know I just put up a post. But Rita Pierson tells exactly what to appreciate in teachers, and I couldn’t wait to get this out to everyone, in her TED Education talk. Listen and watch her and know that indeed you are appreciated, if it’s only by your students. (Thanks, Marilyn Hollman, for […]