We were away for a few days, escaping from all the angst in the education world. We’ve come home to find an outstanding teacher in the news. Danielle Bero, a New York HS teacher is not only featured, but the story celebrates her strategies to engage struggling students by connecting schoolwork with their lives — […]

Not so excited about writing to describe your great work with kids? Are you more of a visual learner & communicator? Classroom or school videos can tell a powerful story as this one from Whittier Middle School in Poland Maine very nicely shows. As you’ll see if you watch the students spent 8 weeks researching […]

More and more voices are urging teachers to project their voices into the public debates on education. We hope teachers hear them and are encouraged to speak out, so permit us to connect you with several good discussions. First, I took part in a Google Hangout panel on this topic Wed. night, June 19th. You […]

I urge teachers to write about their teaching to build more support for their work, and get their stories out to the public in some way. But many ask, “What should I write about? How do I start?” Perhaps this is because so many of us have had our voices silenced, as one teacher describes […]

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 […]

I’ve started a new Facebook page called Teachers Speak Up on Testing. This one is designed specifically to gather teachers’ and others’ thoughts on the standardized testing that is being expanded so widely across the country. How is it working or not working in your school? What aspects of teaching and learning do the tests […]

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 […]

I promised myself I’d spend less time on these Teachers Speak Up posts — but it looks like I haven’t broken the addiction yet. Tonight I’m joining a Google Talk discussion on teacher voice, moderated by Paul Allison of Teachers Teaching Teachers. Also in the session will be Jesse Hagopian of Garfield HS in Seattle, […]

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, […]