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 […]

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 […]

May 7th is supposed to be Teacher Appreciation Day. If only we were! In any case, this would be an excellent occasion to explain to the community just exactly what we should be appreciated for (and if you’re a Teachers Speak Up follower, you know exactly what I’d like you to do). In an op-ed […]

It’s great to see that at least sometimes good schools and teachers are appreciated in the press. Here are two great school stories recognized publicly. First, a whole school district in Hartsville, SC, is working with community partners and a retired corporate CEO to implement a whole-child approach to kids’ learning (developed by child psychologist […]

Readers, please take a look at this powerful, great video on why teachers stay with the job, made by teacher Beth Shaum. Then visit her blog, Use Your Outside Voice. And now, if you’re a teacher, ask yourself: wouldn’t it be wise to take just a few minutes each week — in spite of the […]

It’s encouraging to hear of more and more teachers advocating and making their voices heard. Here are two fresh examples, one national and one local. The national item is the “Occupy the Department of Education 2.0” event that just took place in Washington D.C., organized by the new Network for Public Education. The report on […]

It’s great when a fellow teacher sees power in public communication. Here’s Janet Ilko’s comment on our latest post about her journey: Thanks for sharing my blogpost. I have been blogging for about 2 years now, at www.writinginmyhand.org, about my classroom and working with students. I ran across your site a few months ago, and […]

Teachers are busier and more overwhelmed than ever, with larger class sizes, more planning for new mandates, standards, and performance evaluations. Yet it’s more important than ever for us to speak out to the public and explain just what we do for kids every day, so we gain support rather than still more of such […]