April 2014 Archives

Last week, I wrote about how the education inequity gap won't be closed in China by simply sending armies of great teachers into classrooms. It's going to take so much more, including entrepreneurs who understand the real issues, and have the vision and gumption to start their own programs, non-profits and businesses that will serve children across the country. Over the next few weeks, I'll be profiling a couple of inspiring people who have taken it upon themselves to Just Do It. This week, meet He Guannan, a second-year Teach For China teacher who started his own non-profit while battling ...

If there's anything I learned from being a teacher, it's that every great educator embodies an entrepreneurial spirit. Anyone who has not only survived, but achieved, with their students knows what it's like to identify a common problem, get creative with new, innovative approaches in how you do things and try it... because you have nothing to lose. It's those desperate moments when you frantically try anything, only to find than 1 out of 5 times, you actually "invented" a new approach to gathering formative data, sharing IEP goals, or tracking student behavior. In other industries, it's called entrepreneurship. For ...

At my school, teachers like function as educators, parents and, in some cases, counselors for classes of more than 60 teenagers who board at school. Young local teachers have brought me cases of promising middle school students suddenly considering dropping out of school due to financial reasons and family tragedies, hoping that as a Teach For China fellow I could do something about it. My fellow Teach For China teacher Li Bolin has struggled to help a student who, over spring vacation, chose to jump into a river and end her own life rather than to return home. She was ...