In my previous two “back to schools” blogs, I focused on bringing back librarians and basic supplies such as tissue. I struggled more for the third topic, because the obvious choice seemed to be to bring back teachers! Recently the
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The Teacher Shortage is REAL
I used to think the teacher shortage was more of a statistic than a reality. Sure, I believed it was happening in other schools. But I have been relatively unaffected in my own professional life (thank goodness!). This year, things
Read MoreProp 123: The Year After…..
It has been five months since Prop 123 barely passed by a super thin margin. After years of near drought level finances, many districts and teachers are beginning to get some relief. There’s quite a bit of anger about how
Read MoreTHE RACE TO GATHER MORE DATA
Many years ago I sat down with my Grandma and talked about what teaching was like for her back in the 50s and 60s. My grandmother, amazingly enough, was the Pomona California teacher of the year back in 1953. I
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From Meow to Roar: A Journey in Advocacy
Last week, I had the opportunity to attend a public hearing for feedback on the 2016 draft mathematics & ELA standards in my community. The meeting was held in the cafeteria of what once was a middle school, that was
Read MoreGetting Realistic About the Number of Decisions We Make
Me: Hey Son, what do you think about the claim that teachers make 3000 non-trivial decisions a day? Son: Well, they make a lot, maybe 100, but you’ve got to be realistic. And realistic is exactly what everyone (and it
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I’m Listening
Every summer I set my intentions for the next school year. These “New Year Resolutions” help me improve and refine my practice and keeps my teaching fresh. Often times they are built based on my learning experiences, reflections, and readings
Read MoreThe Bad Things Are Here
Projected challenges often seem far in the distance, hazy visions of bad things to (maybe) come. In education, we’ve been talking about the assault on public education for so long that we’ve grown to accept future hazards as the norm. A
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Growing Your Own: Fostering a Viable Mentoring Program
When I left the military, I immediately pursued a career in teaching. When I first began my teaching journey, I did not have a mentor teacher, and even before attending pre-service training, I started working at an alternative charter school
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