Accomplished teacher leaders tell stories of how policy decisions impact learning and teaching in their classrooms in order to spark constructive dialogue across the education community.
Last spring, when 70,000 teachers flooded the Capitol to make five demands known, there were as many leaders as followers. Educators flexed the bullhorn, organized a band, wrote initiatives, arranged meetings with lawmakers, trained people to circulate petitions, set up
Read More
In 2010, the AZ State Legislature ended funding for a program called the Early Childhood Block Grant [ECBG]. The loss of money was a devastating blow to many school organizations. In the district where I worked, the ECBG funds were
Read More
We are living in a culture where everyday people become active participants in their environment (YouTube, reporting the news through their cell phones, co-teaching with the instructor in a gym class, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc.). Why should education be any
Read More
I am a proud product of Arizona’s public schools. I am a native born Arizonan who spent her formative years in the Paradise Valley School District. I earned a degree from Northern Arizona University and have worked in schools both
Read More
Some days you feel like a rock star teacher. Your lesson goes off without a hitch. Your students ask poignant, critical questions. They submit quality assignments. You think, “I’ve have got this!” But other days you feel like you are
Read More
When I moved from Pennsylvania to Flagstaff, I spent a good deal of time explaining to my friends and family that yes, it does indeed snow in Arizona. As we gear up for winter in the mountains, my thoughts have
Read More
Growing up, most denominations of currency had the face of someone I recognized. I do not mean that I had learned who these men were from history class; rather, that the men featured were similar to me (white men, of
Read MoreIf you live in the Valley of the Sun, otherwise known as Phoenix, and you have school age children, you probably experience the joys of homework. Homework has become the main instructional method of the higher rated charter schools and
Read More
Stop talking. It’s the best advice I’ve gotten this year and it hasn’t just been from one source. But it’s not just to stop talking, it’s to start really listening. We’re taught from a very young age that if we
Read More
With so much research and information on how to best support students with learning disabilities it can be incredibly difficult to figure out what path is the best. You may be lucky enough to have access to a reading intervention
Read More