As a former English teacher, literacy coach, and elementary librarian, one of my favorite weeks of school has always been Banned Books Week. In all of my former roles, I was tasked with getting students to read. What is a better way to get students to read than to tell them a book was banned?…
Protests this summer brought to the forefront the need for social justice and racial equity. Many advocates and activists have been fighting this battle for decades. These advocates and activists aren’t only on the streets or at meetings speaking up for change; they are also inside of the classroom. Whether these educators are veterans or…
Annually, from August to November, across the state of Indiana the College GO! Campaign takes place. One of the focal events is the College Application Week which is also called College GO! Week in some schools. College Application Week takes place during the last full week of September. This year, from September 21-25, students K-12…
A few years back, I spoke at the statehouse for the school discipline bill. Part of my testimony highlighted students being excluded from the classroom. Typically when data is pulled for exclusion, in school suspension and out of school suspension data are the metrics that are referenced. During my testimony, I highlighted other ways children…
Students in Washington Township started the 2020-21 school year 100% remote. As the school year progressed, district leaders proposed a reopening plan that was approved by the school board. The plan would not be implemented until data provided on the Marion County Public Health Department (MCPHD) COVID-19 School Guidance Dashboard showed a COVID-19 positivity rate…
Tuesday, September 11, 2001 was the date when terrorists hijacked four passenger planes. Two were flown into the World Trade Center. One was flown into the Pentagon, and the fourth plane crashed, landing in a field. Nearly 3,000 people died, and more than 6,000 people were injured. Reflecting on these events 19 years later still…
I’ve only been pregnant once. Early in my pregnancy, I learned that I was pregnant with twins. I prayed to God multiple times to bless me with two boys and not two girls. I would have been happy regardless, but I really wanted to be a boy mom. God heard my prayer, and I delivered…
When I saw Rachel Dolezal, a white woman who was exposed a few years back for pretending to be a Black woman, trending on Twitter, I knew there was going to be nothing but more foolishness involved. This college professor was even the president of the NAACP chapter in Spokane, Washington. Instead of reading that…
David McGuire, principal of Tindley Summit, was recently featured in “This American Life,” a public radio show. The episode, “The Case of the Well-Prepared Elementary School,” narrated by Chalkbeat Indiana bureau chief Stephanie Wang, follows McGuire as his students return both in-person and remotely. This episode shows the challenges schools and families face right now…
The classroom is a microcosm of the outside community. The thoughts and feelings students have based on events that happen outside of the classroom are inside of students when they enter into the classroom. Educators can pretend as if the outside world does not exist, or educators can lean in and embrace the reality and…