Learn more about S.A.F.E. Classrooms and how you can get involved: www.safeclassrooms.org.
Melissa Moritz is the managing director of Teach For America’s STEM Initiative. After graduating from MIT with a B.S. in Biology, Melissa joined the Teach For America corps as a middle school science teacher at MS 321 in New York City.
This week I’ll be travelling to Austin for US News’s 2013 STEM Solutions Summit. And I’ll be in great company. More than 2,000 leaders in education, policymaking, nonprofits, and the private sector are expected to gather to advance the most critical issues facing STEM in our country. From developing after-school science clubs to the fueling the tech workforce pipeline, everything will be discussed. I’ll have my ears perked for opportunities to engage others in meaningful dialogue around improving STEM education.
The issues of STEM education aren’t contained to individual schools or districts. They affect the entire country. When one corner of the US doesn’t offer excellent courses in science, math, engineering, and technology, an entire populace grows up without the skills necessary to fill high-tech jobs.
NASA's AIM (Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere) satellite in clean room from Wikimedia Commons.
How did you learn to read? For me, it was the combo of a serious Sesame Street addiction and a mother who tucked me in with a book every night (thanks, mom and Big Bird!). We each have different learning styles, but—as any Kid President will tell you—early childhood is a critical time to build the foundations of that learning. Surprisingly (or maybe unsurprisingly, if you agree with the New York Times’Gail Collins), the U.S. hasn’t yet been able to make preschool available to every child.
Photo by Walter Lim via Wikimedia Commons
Emily (D.C. Region ‘07) is the program and policy specialist in the D.C. Public Schools Office of Early Childhood Education. She taught second grade in Prince George’s County, Maryland and has a Master’s degree in early childhood curriculum and instruction. Opinions expressed here are hers alone.
Ever since President Obama visited the Early Childhood Learning Center in Georgia and released his plan for universal preschool, the country has been abuzz about the prospect of preschool expansion. In the days following his announcement, there were features of exemplary state programs that could be models for universal preschool, but there was no mention made of Washington, D.C. It made me wonder—as far as innovative models, why isn’t anyone talking about D.C. Public Schools (DCPS)?
Picture from Wikimedia Commons.
This post commemorates Asian-American Pacific Islander Month.
I am a first-generation Cambodian-American. My parents, forced to work in labor camps of the Killing Fields in Cambodia in the late ‘70s, immigrated with my sister and me to the US in 1984. I was only 2 years old at the time.
Growing up as refugees, my family and I faced struggles similar to those of students in low-income and immigrant communities. We grew up on food stamps and received free- and reduced-price lunch. I attended the lowest-performing public schools and was an ESL student for most of my elementary years. My high school had the highest dropout rate in the county in which I lived. Since both of my parents lacked a formal education, my siblings and I had to navigate the education system ourselves—doing what we could to study for the SATs, filing for FAFSA ourselves and researching how to get into college.
Photo provided by Huoy Chen
This post marks National Mental Health Awareness month, focused on creating awareness and educating the public on mental health.
What comes to mind when you hear the words “mental illness”? You may think of the Aurora movie theater shooting or the tragedy in Tucson, Arizona. Or how about the movies Silence of the Lambs, What About Bob, and Black Swan?
The only time there seems to be a national discussion on mental health is when someone does something that is deviant or difficult to understand. The media calls on mental health professionals to weigh in on the tragedy, and to determine the role mental illness may have played.
Photo by Benjamin J. DeLong via WikiCommons
For the last three years, it has been my job to evaluate teachers. For roughly 60 hours a week, I observe, debrief, reflect, and problem solve with corps members teaching high school English in Chicago. I help my teachers with everything from behavior management to unit planning to relationship building to organizing their desks. When I’m not in classrooms, I’m thinking about classrooms. It is wonderful, challenging, time-consuming work.
If a system of feedback and skill-building weren’t crucial for teacher development, I would be out of a job. In that vein, I’m excited to hear that my city is prioritizing teacher evaluations. Even more exciting is that these evaluations shift the focus of teacher effectiveness from test scores exclusively to things like classroom culture and community involvement. Yes! Finally a tool that takes into account the intricacies of teaching!
Photo by enixii via Wikimedia Commons
Here are ten tributes to veteran teachers to mark National Teacher Appreciation Week. Members of the Teach For America community salute the teachers, mentors, friends, and colleagues whose wisdom and care made a difference in their lives.
Ms. Hall. Oh, Ms. Hall. I feel that calling her my co-worker lowers her God-like status. She can control a classroom with a sideways glance and a whip of her hair. Her students know that she cares about them, but they also realize she is no nonsense. She has been invaluable in making me accept the messy crazy imperfection that first-year teaching is. -Blair Mishleau (Twin Cities ‘12)
This post marks National Teacher Appreciation Week.
A 22-year teaching veteran (and my former second-grade teacher), Mrs. Alice Siegel Budd is a Facebook friend to almost all of her students from the 1981 class of second graders at P.S. 273 in Brooklyn, New York.
She regularly “talks” to us, “comments” on our statuses and still wishes us Happy Birthday! She congratulates us on a job well done and admires our families. At one point, she even tried to get us to call her by her first name, Alice. We simply refused her request, all of us—she will always be Mrs. Siegel to us.
My fondest memory of Mrs. Siegel was her standing at the board writing. She has the most amazing penmanship I had ever seen and we all wanted to write just like her. She finally promised us that if we learned all of our required material that she would teach us cursive. I WAS SO EXCITED! I think this was the day I became a lifelong learner.
I was honored to spend an afternoon talking with Mrs. Siegel to learn more about the life path that brought her to teaching.
Photo courtesy of Tracy Dunbar.
Last week, LGBTQ activist Scott Wooledge reported that Students First honored House Representative John Ragan, the co-author of Tennessee’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, as “Ed Reformer of the Year.” This bill, which would prevent educators from discussing LGBTQ identities in any capacity in K-8 schools, died on the senate floor last year, but was reintroduced in the house by Ragan this February— with some choice modifications.
Ragan’s version of HB 1332, in addition to preventing educators from discussing LGBTQ issues, would also require school officials to notify family members if their child even hints at same-sex curiosity or attraction. In addition to creating hostile environments in our schools, Bills like HB 1332 effectively force teachers to “out” LGBTQ youth. This exposes them to profound potential risks, including homelessness, physical abuse and “conversion therapy." Policies like these force teachers to reinforce the internalization of heterosexism or even become accomplices in this abuse.
Photo by Eva Rinaldi via WikiCommons
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