we are more than king

African American Influence on U.S. Government

Yolanda Wheelington Current Affairs, Education, Education Policy, Elementary, Life in the Classroom, Professional Development, Social Issues, Teacher Leadership

African American Influence on U.S. Government   As February winds down, let’s remember that the celebration of African American influence does not have to end. In honor of this, we will take a look at some of the ways that

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Holiday Tears and Cheers with English Language Learners

Amethyst Hinton Sainz Life in the Classroom, Love, Social Issues

There are many moments when I really wish my Spanish was better, and yesterday was one of those moments. It was the last day of the semester, and my introduction level English Language Development class (grade 7 and 8) was

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photo credit: Chris Kealy (Day)Dream Catcher via photopin (license)

“The Dream Catcher” or The Girl Who Championed Self Doubt

Yolanda Wheelington Assessment, Education, Education Policy, Elementary, Life in the Classroom, Love, Mathematics, Mentoring, Professional Development, Social Issues, Teacher Leadership, Uncategorized

I’m not sure if she was solving multiplication problems with the Checkerboard or working in Read Naturally when I called her over. I noticed she took a deep breath and had that faraway look in her eyes, but she shook

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Closeup detail of a US visa document.

When Executive Orders Get Personal

Amethyst Hinton Sainz Current Affairs, Life in the Classroom, Social Issues

Yesterday as I drove home from work. NPR reported on the new executive orders expanding the groups prioritized for immigration enforcement– in effect, increasing the number of deportations of undocumented immigrants. But I didn’t hear much of the story. After

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Reality Check for English Language Learners

Amethyst Hinton Sainz Assessment, Education, Education Policy, Life in the Classroom, Literacy, Uncategorized

  Snippets of surreptitious conversational Spanish dart around the classroom amid scattered outbursts of giggles. I review the color-coded highlighting of sentence parts in our newest sentence formula involving superlative adjectives, pointing to the laminated neon cards magneted to the

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