Fatphobia Showed Up in My Classroom
It is the noisiest time of the day at school. It’s lunchtime and I’m sitting with two of my 3rd graders in the basement cafeteria of our public school building […]
Elementary
It’s a Big Fat Deal
A special education teacher tackles fatphobia in our schools head-on, pointing out how we fall far short in our efforts to rid it from the classroom and how fundamentally detrimental fatphobia is to teaching and learning.
The Voice of a Seed
I hope that centering Indigenous voices in the classroom and school garden will teach my students the value of Indigenous ways of knowing. As they develop an awareness of the social injustice and resilience that characterizes the stories of Indigenous peoples and their food cultures, I want them to be dissatisfied with the absence of Native narratives and seek out the voices of the tribes themselves.
Planning to Change the World 2022-2023
This is a plan book for school-based, home-based, and community-based educators who believe that young people can, will, and already do change the world. It is designed to help educators translate their vision […]
Action Research for Environmental Justice in the Kindergarten Classroom
A kindergarten teacher helps students investigate issues of environmental justice — like access to green space — in their communities.
Choreographing for Justice
An elementary teacher helps her students express themselves about social justice issues like the murder of George Floyd and Black Lives Matter through movement and dance, and helps them see how dance can celebrate diversity.
“Who Spent Two Months in Jail for Participating in the Freedom Rides?!”
A 5th-grade teacher devises a mixer activity to help her students understand that the Civil Rights Movement was not fueled only by great leaders, but also by ordinary people who became change makers and organized with others.
“I Saw Eyes Begin to Widen”
Role plays can offer students engaging ways to learn, but require careful contextualization and follow-up. This article offers some cautions and guidance about using them.
Listening Between the Lines
A music teacher stories her tense journey to listen to and include a parent in her child’s education.
Big Reactions to Small Steps
Harrington Pangallo describes pushback for reading a book to answer a student question — “What does gay mean?” — and her response.
What Catalina Taught Me About Inclusion
Asking a student about her communication preferences brings interdependence and solidarity into a kindergarten classroom.
The Story of a Seed
An agriculture teacher describes teaching “every seed has a story” with 1st graders by honoring the story of, and planting, the Makah Ozette potato.
A Rhythm of Gratitude
We Are Grateful: OtsaliheligaBy Traci SorellIllustrated by Frané LessacCharlesbridge Publishing, 2018 My preschool-age children collect treasures from the ground that end up on our table. Bits of moss, Douglas fir […]
We Need to Ask Our Students to Dream — and to Dream Big
Back in the 1980s, I taught an elective class at Jefferson High School in Portland, Oregon, called Literature and Social Change. It centered around the questions “What is a good […]
Do or Die Land
photo: AP PHOTO/AMES TRIBUNE, NIRMALENDU MAJUMDAR A British parent confronts the realities of U.S. schooling By Andrew Gumbel Sooner or later, anyone who lives abroad reaches a defining moment when […]
Heroes or Cultural Icons? Of Thee I Sing : A Letter to My Daughters
Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My DaughtersBy Barack Obama Illustrated by Loren Long(Knopf, 2010) On the title page of President Barack Obama’s picture book, Of Thee I Sing: A […]
Ordinary Heroes
A review of The Librarian of Basra by Jeanette Winter (Harcourt, 2004)
Writing for Justice
An elementary school teacher takes us inside his classroom to see how he builds on his students’ lives and passions to help them create persuasive essays.
Testing Our Limits
First graders, three at a time, use classroom computers to take standardized tests. Their teacher explains the impact on the students and herself.
Sin Fronteras Boy
Fourth-grade English language learners use wikis to study border issues and gain literacy skills.
Talking Back to the World
Student poetry about what raised me is woven into graphic art.
Reading First, Libraries Last
In these bleak NCLB days of regimented
The Scripted Prescription
Testing mania reaches the pre-K classroom. It saddened me to think that my daughter’s first impression of school was based on taking a test and failing it.”
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Think Less Benchmarks
Thanks to the folks at the Discovery Channel
TV Selfishness and Violence Explode During ‘War On Terror
Six years into the ‘War on Terror