I am unapologetically pro school choice. Right now parents’ right to choose the best school for their children is under attack. All parents, especially parents of color and parents living in poverty, need to pay attention to the foolishness taking place in California and the education plan shared by presidential candidates like Bernie Sanders. In…
Class, I need you to sit on the carpet with your legs crossed with your hands in your laps. Voices should be off. That’s how I talk to kindergarteners, but I have been told that I’m too strict and too direct with them. Instead, some educators would prefer I say: Class, sit on your pockets….
Purdue Polytechnic High School (PPHS) is a public charter school partnered with Purdue University. It opened Fall 2017 in the Union 525 building. Currently, it is located downtown on the fourth floor of Circle Center Mall. The downtown campus will relocate to the Mallory Building on the near east side for the 2020-21 school year….
Monday, May 6 – Friday, May 10 is Teacher Appreciation Week. Being a black educator, I was curious to know if anyone felt a black educator had made a difference in his or his life. Eric Williams, a former student of Arlington High School, shared that Mr. Roosevelt Griffin, a black Economics teacher, made a…
Teachers and students are getting ready to wrap up the remainder of the school year. Before the school year wraps up, we need to stop and thank our teachers. Teacher Appreciation Week happens at a perfect time. The end of the year can be intense, but if a teacher hears how much he or she…
As a current librarian and a former English teacher and literacy coach, my heart’s desire is for all children to loving reading and for all children to have the internal motivation to read. Over my career, parents have told me I was the reason their child started reading. I have heard, “My child never finished…
For some reason, comic books are seen by some as not real reading material. Graphic novels get lumped into this category too. As a current elementary librarian and a former literacy coach and English teacher, I am here to make this clear: Reading comic books is real reading. We tell children we want them to…
Most schools have a month or less left of the school year. As parents, it is easy to join in with our children and count the days until the end of the school year. We want it to be over because the end of the year can be intense. At this time, there tend to…
For this school year, students had to turn five on or before August 1 to be eligible for kindergarten enrollment. For the 2019-20 school year, the law has changed. Parents will now be able to send their child to school if his or her birthday falls on or before September 1. Since the law was…
If you have been following my writing, you should know that I do not support many school dress codes when it comes to the hair section. Every month, there is an incident involving a dress code violation over hair. The offender many times is a black student. “We are a culturally responsive school.” Sure you…