Just what we all need to be doing! Our new Iowa friend, Steve Peterson, let his community know about a rich learning experience as 3rd graders visit a local museum. His letter to the editor also gave him an excellent opportunity too give credit and thanks to the many community members who helped make it […]

Just heard from Steve Peterson, a new visitor to Teachers Speak Up, about his blog, where he lets us in on how he as a teacher gets kids thinking when they read. This is a great way to inform the wider public about how we educators think through and develop our craft, and how engaged […]

OK, since my son & his wife are delayed in arriving today because of fog at the airport, it looks like I have time for a post. I can’t believe I’ve missed this excellent website, Those Who Teach . It’s doing just what I’ve been proposing, asking, begging, pleading, cheering on, campaigning for. So go […]

I just received the following email from one of the table discussion leaders at our NCTE conference session on teacher voice. Let this inspire still more teachers tweeting the public about our work. Now let us all enjoy Thanksgiving! Hello Steve (and everyone), I wanted to pass along an anecdote from our table. My focus […]

Just back from Natl. Council of Teachers of English conference, where we heard teacher voice amplified as many of us shared and brainstormed strategies to better inform the wider public about our work and what we do for kids. Writing Project leaders from many states offered ideas. 75 teachers listened to Sonia Nieto’s stories of […]

Here’s a teacher, just into his second year, telling the Huffington Post how Memphis publicizes teachers and their achievements, involves them in decision-making, and is developing more meaningful career ladders for them. Not only a good list of strategies, but a teacher telling the world about them. Note: This writer is headed off to the […]

Writer-educator Michael Keathley joins us in promoting teacher voice, in his extensive blog post today. It’s great that he mentions Teachers Speak Up, but he also has plenty to say, himself, about us educators and our tendency to play the martyr role behind closed doors, rather than speaking out to the public about what we […]

If you’re following the posts on this site, you know we’re campaigning for a publicity blitz by teachers to promote public education. Here’s a letter to the Hechinger Report that no doubt wasn’t written in response to our urging, but argues very thoughtfully for finding common ground on education, as essential for improving our schools […]

OK, now that the election is over, I’m going to bug readers of this blog for the next week to WRITE ABOUT GREAT TEACHING ! If you’re a teacher, it should be yours. If you work with teachers, you can describe the work of one of them — and urge all of them to write […]

I said I wouldn’t blog with the election on everyone’s mind, but then I saw this — a local newspaper featuring great teaching. Tracy Chambas & a group of her students meeting EVERY afternoon after school to work on novels for the NaNoWriMo national novel writing contest. I hope it was Tracy herself who alerted […]