National Grandparents Day takes place each year on the first Sunday following Labor Day weekend. If you are like me, you wonder where your parents went once you became a parent. The rules I had to follow apparently no longer apply to my children. My children can have dessert before dinner according to my parents….
Tuesday, September 4, 2019, the embargo was lifted and ILEARN results were made available to the public. Schools and parents had already received results. As expected, scores plummeted as Indiana students shifted from taking I-STEP to ILEARN. Regardless of the assessment, one fact rings true: students of color continue to underperform when compared to their…
Once again there is a story about censorship in schools. A Catholic school in Tennessee has decided their students should not read Harry Potter because they may conjure up evil spirits. When the first Harry Potter book was published in the late 90s, I was in high school. I remember religious groups all over the…
Before my education pieces were published online, I was publishing blog posts about urban gardening. My parents are gardeners and grow their own food and so do many of my relatives. When Big Green, formerly called The Kitchen Community, came to Indianapolis, it was an opportunity for me to mesh my two loves, educating children…
Many students probably think homework is a necessary evil, or maybe they just think it is evil. When I’ve said “Students, write down this assignment in your agenda,” audible groans filled the classroom. Kids don’t like doing homework. Who can blame them? They have been in school all day receiving direct instruction. Some concepts are…
Teacher requests for school supplies have evolved. When I was a K-12 student, teachers would create a supply list of needed materials. The school shared this list before school began and parents purchased the supplies. Parents purchased the supplies for their children’s use only. Today, this is no longer the case. Many schools have now…
The achievement gap between black and white students is one of the many reasons why school districts are pushing for maximizing every possible minute of the day to ensure students have plenty of opportunities to learn content. Two content areas of high focus are English and math since they are assessed on state standardized tests…
Instead of staying after school yesterday to prepare for the next day, teachers from across the state filed into the Ivy Tech Culinary and Conference Center to raise their voices yet again about the importance of raising teacher pay and to provide solutions for consideration to make that happen to Governor Holcomb’s Next Level Teacher…
Since the passing of the great literary genius Toni Morrison, people have taken time to reflect upon her body of work. Morrison, the winner of the Nobel prize in literature, is known for her novels like Beloved and for her essays and lectures. She also wrote children’s book with her son Slade Morrison, who preceded…
Last month, over sixty of my relatives took a cruise to the Bahamas for our family reunion. It was the first time my children had been out of the country and on a ship. Although they read fluently and above grade level, they were confused about the terminology my husband and I were using while…