Teacher-Leader Voices
Past and present state teachers of the year weighed in on the most pressing issues in K-12 education, sharing their most promising insights from the classroom and seeding critical conversations about the future of teaching and learning. This blog is no longer being updated.
Education
Opinion
A Note From the Editor
Effective June 11, 2019 the Education Week/NNSTOY partnership for producing this blog was terminated.
Student Well-Being
Opinion
How to Spark Empathy During Test-Prep Season: Lessons From a 5th Grade Math Teacher in Brooklyn
Empatico is a great way to spark empathy and energy in your students during testing season.
Teaching Profession
Opinion
Being a Teacher and a Student: From Burnout to Balance
Teacher-burnout rates are on the rise. To stay invested for the long haul, it's important to keep the balance between being the teacher and being a lifelong learner.
Teaching Profession
Opinion
New Teacher, You Didn't Do It Wrong
Before you clean up, lock the classroom door, and head into your first summer as a teacher, I want you to know one thing: You didn't do it wrong.
Student Well-Being
Opinion
Fill Your Own Bucket: How to Refill Our Teacher Leader Buckets
When our buckets are running low, we should take some time for ourselves so that we can get back to being the types of teacher leaders our schools and our professions need us to be.
Student Well-Being
Opinion
Sparking Empathy: I Used to Think ... But Now I Know ...
Empatico affords my students the opportunity to connect in a powerful way with students from a different part of the county. Not only did they shatter some of their misconceptions but they also created an opportunity to use their new skills to engage with community leaders and impact social change.
Student Well-Being
Opinion
Why We Must Teach Perspective-Taking When Developing Empathy
All people face challenges, adversity, and have personal experiences that may be driving their behavior. Our willingness to take different perspectives or look at the world from a different point of view is what will ensure empathy is part of our minds and hearts. And empathy makes our society a more caring, kind, and accepting place for all of us to live.
Teaching Profession
Opinion
Who Drives the Bus at Your School?
If a school is metaphorically a bus, who drives it? Traditionally, a principal does. He or she provides direction and motivation, presses the gas and brake when needed, and lets passengers--or teachers--on and off. But the best principals offer teachers opportunities to drive--or at least navigate--the bus without abandoning them, which is important because most teachers appreciate leaders with a shared sense of responsibility.
Professional Development
Opinion
Why Teachers Pay Teachers, Teachers of Instagram, and Teach Your Heart Out Are Not the Signs of the Apocalypse You Think They Are
This splashy new normal in education is creating change--most of it wonderful, some of it troubling. But this wonderful and brave new world for teachers with diverse places to look for content, mentors, materials, and inspiration has made what's arguably one of the toughest jobs in America just a tiny bit easier. And that's something wonderful.
Professional Development
Opinion
Peer Observation and the Novice Teacher: What You See Is What You Get
All too often, well-meaning administrators suggest new teachers watch more experienced teachers to see mastery in action. But new teachers, with their lack of experience and pedagogical understanding, are not always able to identify nuances of effective teaching and then successfully implement new strategies. On a solo safari, what new teachers see is literally what they get.
Teaching Profession
Opinion
Snowshoes and Songbirds
As the cold winter months give way to spring, are you finding comfort in the familiar or forging ahead on a new path. 2014 Montana State Teacher of the Year Anna Baldwin discovers an unexpected metaphor in the juxtaposition of snowshoes and songbirds.
Student Well-Being
Opinion
The Humanity of Homeroom
I learned a long time ago that students don't want to learn from someone they don't like or from someone who has no interest in their lives or their stories. As educators, we must be purposeful in establishing these relationships and having day-to-day interactions with students. Homeroom provides the perfect opportunity to lay the foundations of this important work.
Education
Opinion
Why We Are All Up in our Feelings About Teaching
I #LoveTeaching because I love the kids: their incredible hearts, and the gift it is to be that adult who has the chance to know them.
Education
Opinion
The Truth About Time
Regardless of how you choose to view time, return to the classroom this semester with this in mind: it takes a mere moment to change a child's life. A few seconds, really. The right words. The right silence. The right attention. Seconds.
