Learning While Brown
It’s that gentle onset of anxiety that builds in your stomach and slowly rises to your heart, forcing that vital organ to kick and shudder against your chest. What if they notice I’m not supposed to be...
View ArticleAcademic Conversations
Have you ever heard, or thought, that people write like they talk? Well my team has discussed several times of recent years that we need to speak, at least some of the time, with more formal academic...
View ArticleBringing Home Visits Back
There I was, standing in front of 42 seventh graders at Moses Garoëb Primary School, with absolutely nothing left to say on the subject. The lesson hadn’t quite gone as planned. I had intended on...
View ArticleThe Not-So-Techy Culturally Responsive Classroom
In second grade, I had a fabulous teacher named Mrs. Jones. She was young, a traveler, and always sought out different ways to connect with me. She had recently returned from a trip to Machu Picchu,...
View ArticleLearning While Brown: [In]visible
Leanne. She’s spunky, she’s strong, and she knows who she is. She’s five. She will straight up tell you she’s a girl, but she likes looking like a boy. She will look you in the eye and correct you if...
View ArticleKing Gallon and Other Memorization Tricks
I can name all of the U.S. states in alphabetical order thanks to the song “Fifty Nifty United States.” Because of the sentence “My very educated mother just served us nine pizzas.,” I can quickly...
View ArticlePicture Walks
The Burnout When we get to this time of year, 4th quarter and the burnout, it can be hard to keep students’ attention. My team likes to do an engaging novel study with a creative project for a final...
View ArticleWhat They Don’t Remember Come September
In May I wrote about strategies a teacher might use to ensure that the last month or two of school are peaceful, productive, and fun for everyone involved. My hope is that regardless of if you read...
View ArticleMaking Every Effort
Here we are in Valencia, Spain, on a bus heading for the airport (we hoped). I’m making a face because our adventure in Spain this summer was exactly that– an adventure. Although I am a native Spanish...
View ArticleDeaf or Death?
I am an ELL teacher. My students qualify for language services by having a language other than English identified on their Home Language Survey, stated by Washington State law. Some of the students I...
View ArticleThe Ever-Widening Gap
In our journey towards providing an equitable education for all, let’s take a quick refreshing look at the current graduation data: Now, granted, this is just for Spokane Public schools, but I think...
View ArticleAdvocating for All Students
In the United States we believe all students have a right to a quality education. However, this isn’t always carried out for multiple reasons. This doesn’t mean any child is less qualified for a...
View ArticleMy Insta-Classroom Part II
Back in November, I shared with you why I got hooked to using Instagram for the classroom. It was the immediate connection into other people’s classrooms that I so quickly latched on to in this...
View ArticleThe Language Exchange
When I was growing up, I noticed that speaking Spanish got me lumped into a group of negative stereotypes. In communication, there was English and then there was other. And the other…well, let’s just...
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