All Blog Posts by Taylor Burke

Taylor Burke

Taylor Burke has been on staff at Teach For America  for more than three years, and currently works as the copywriter and editor on the Regional Marketing team. She has lived in seven TFA regions and is looking forward to moving with her husband to a, still unknown, number eight soon.

All Posts by Taylor

Friday Five: How to Save a Life

May 17, 2013

Talk about the power of knowledge: a five-year-old boy who was with his father when he suffered an aneurysm and stroke was able to call for help then identify their location by using his ABC’s. He spelled the name of the store they had pulled in front of when his father started to get sick. Help arrived in time. Watch his adorable interview here.

 

Picture from Wikimedia Commons

 
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Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

April 12, 2013

Five links that made us think this week.

April is National Poetry Month and TFA alum, Emily Southerton is asking students across the country to talk about what poetry means to them as part of her Poet Warriors Project. Take a moment to read through their inspiring work, and if you are a teacher, encourage your students to submit their own thoughts to the blog.

Put away your #2 pencils and your highlighters! Last week, we talked about proposed new technology that will grade essays electronically. This week, an article in the New York Times discussed how some professors are using technology and e-books to determine if students are doing their reading homework or not. Technology can be both useful and overused in the classroom, but the innovation with which people are thinking about education is exciting.

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

 
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Celebrating My Womanhood AND My Inner Child

March 15, 2013

Five links that made us think this week.

I attended a large public high school where our school’s police officer was always on hand. I rarely had any personal interaction with him beyond the passing “hello” in the hallways, but this article got me thinking about the role he played in my high school experience and how officers across the country can be used in positive (or negative) ways around the schools they protect. 

If you have any doubt as to the ability of our nation’s children to be the STEM innovators and problem solvers of the future this article will put it to rest. The projects these Intel Science Talent Search finalists are working on are truly exceptional. Across the country, kids have the ideas and the potential to do what these remarkable students are doing. We need to provide the education and resources to help them grow. 

At Teach For America, we’re constantly thinking about kids, but if you’re like me, we often forget it’s OK to act like one too. This week I’m remembering to take moment to destress with some kid-inspired activities or one of these relaxation techniques from around the globe.

Photo by Effeietsanders via Wikimedia Commons

 
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And the Oscar Goes To. . .

February 22, 2013

Five links that made us think this week.

I love the Academy Awards—so much, in fact, that I host an annual party complete with ballots and movie-themed food. This year’s Oscars should prove to be interesting as several of the best picture nominees have been deemed controversial for their historical accuracy, depictions of race, and political leanings. Two of them have sparked a particular debate on the portrayal of slavery in the films—the lack thereof in Lincoln, and the extreme violence in Django Unchained.

Speaking of extreme violence, I recently attended a fitness boot camp where the instructor had us play dodge ball as our cardio warm-up. It took me right back to my elementary school gymnasium and I practically hid in the corner while my dad, who came with me, targeted me for his hardest throws. This article in the New York Times regarding the infusion of academics into physical education class, also got me thinking about gym. Is it better to squeeze academic learning time into every available minute of the school day? Or to give kids a break to just be kids?

Photo via Wikimedia Commons

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