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Using Social Media to Teach: Keep It Transparent, Open and Safe
Facebook, Twitter, texting. An article in The Times this weekend explored the treacherous terrain of social media which, on the one hand, can be effective at organizing and teaching students. On the...
View Article'No Excuses' Is Not Just for Teachers
When asked to identify the qualities that lead to success in life, experts often list the ability to overcome obstacles. Pushing past adversity, through determination and persistence, is the hallmark...
View ArticleCan Students Be Required to Join Facebook?
Last month, following an article in The Times about the struggles teachers, schools and districts are having when it comes to safe use of social media, SchoolBook offered some advice for teachers and...
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Mad Libs and Dangling Participles
The most seemingly mundane aspects of English teaching tend to provoke the most intense controversies in the classroom. Grammar, the necessary “evil” that we cannot sidestep as English educators, is an...
View ArticleA Bronx High School Teacher Tells All
You will never look at Pop-Tarts the same again after reading the account of a Bronx high school teacher in New York magazine's Workplace Confidential feature this week.The teacher, who remains...
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Everyday Failures, but a Narrative of Success
You get comfortable with failure when you are a teacher. Not complacent about failing, but comfortable with the reality that each day will include some failure, as well as some success.Some days your...
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No Way Out of the Evaluation Trap
Believe it or not, I wake up every morning eager to go to work. I never know what’s going to happen in my classes, but I invariably look forward to them. My students never fail to surprise me. I feel...
View ArticleFor Teachers and Principals, Anger, Sadness and a Need to Explain
WNYCPrincipals react to teacher ratingsSome teachers said they worry that the public release of individual teacher data is going to lead to fights over high-performing students, and to the neglect of...
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The 'Magic' of Student-Teacher Relationships
Britney spent more time in the hall than in the classroom. She fought any time that the opportunity presented itself, and involved herself readily in any and all drama in the school.Laura KleinA very...
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Does Helping a Student Add to My Value?
“Thank you for calling my mom,” said my student, whom I will call Stephanie. I’ve been teaching 27 years, and no one had ever said such a thing. (Once a young woman greeted me with, “I am dead! That’s...
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The Art of Slipping in Some Learning
Off to the side of Eric Azcuy’s cluttered desk were two products from Nissin Foods: one Cup Noodles and one box of Chow Mein. It looked like lunch, but it was actually the day’s art lesson.The...
View ArticleHow Testing Is Hurting Teaching
The New York State tests, going on now in middle and elementary schools, have always been high stakes for students, particularly in fourth and seventh grades, when their scores determine whether they...
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Life Lessons, Taught the Hard Way
When we drove up to the house, we heard shouting -- playful, hyper, enthusiastic expressions from kids we couldn’t yet see. The house looked like many others on the tree-lined street, but as we drove...
View ArticleAppreciating, and Assessing, Teachers
Two pieces in The New York Times help to kick off Teacher Appreciation Week. On Saturday, Charles M. Blow focused his Op-Ed column on a teacher near and dear to his heart: his mother, a teacher of 34...
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The Student Who Made Me a Better Teacher
Sedina was not what you would call a star student. Her aunt and mother were both on my speed dial for three years. She talked incessantly. She was stubborn. She was at her most joyful when she was...
View ArticleSitting on the Other Side of the Desk
This spring SchoolBook formed a partnership with LynNell Hancock's education reporting class at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. During the semester, the students produced articles about...
View ArticleShould Program to Reward Teachers Include More Hours and Students?
Earlier this year I wrote about some of the problems in Project Respect, a proposed federal program designed to try to "keep good teachers on the job and reward the best ones,'' in the words of...
View ArticleReformers Could Use a History Lesson
We are teacher educators who have one eye on schooling in the present and the other on the history of education. We can’t help noticing that while many contemporary reform proposals are presented as...
View ArticlePhillip Lopate on His Writing Life
Author Phillip Lopate discusses his latest books, Portrait Inside My Head, a collection of personal essays on memory, culture, parenthood, the trials of marriage, and New York’s storied past and...
View ArticleOpen Phones: What Would You Teach?
If you could teach a class on anything, what would be the topic? What's your micro-specialty - the thing you know so well that you could share with others? It could be anything - a skill, a concept,...
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Radio Rookies DIY: Educators Guide to Teaching Interviewing Skills
Rookies DIY: How to do vox popThe first in a series of videos we’re creating in partnership with the Hive NYC Learning Network, teaches people to produce their own stories using digital media. This...
View ArticleEvaluating Arts and Gym Class Teachers
Laura Bornfreund, a senior policy analyst in the New America Foundation's Education Policy Program, takes your suggestions about how to evaluate arts and gym students for the purposes of evaluating...
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DIY TOOLKIT: How to report your own story
Radio Rookies DIY: How to report your own storyThis animated short is part of a toolkit of DIY videos we’re creating in partnership with the Hive NYC Learning Network to teach people to produce their...
View ArticleA Class on Death Teaches About Life
Nurse Norma Bowe explains why she decided to teach a college course on death and why it became so popular. She’s joined by journalist Erika Hayasaki, to discuss how Norma worked with four extraordinary...
View ArticleWhy Teaching is Criticized as Much as (or More Than) It's Praised
The profession of teaching has been simultaneously attacked and admired, and the issues being debated in education today have been debated for many decades. Dana Goldstein reveals that teachers have...
View ArticleSchool Discipline: It's Different For Black Girls
There's been a lot of discussion about how black men and black boys are treated by the justice system. But today we bring you a story about how black girls—elementary and high school...
View ArticleMaking It As A Writer
Laura Van Den Berg has the kind of literary success writers dream of. Her debut novel comes out later this month, and already it's become one of the most anticipated books of the year. But for Laura,...
View ArticleLeonard Lopate Weekend: Elizabeth Warren, Tim Gunn & "Skylight" on Broadway
This week: Senator Elizabeth Warren discusses inequality, the economy and why she'll "always be an outsider" (first). Then, Tim Gunn discusses his new book of lessons on mentorship, teaching, and...
View ArticleTeaching and Race: Tips on Leading Difficult Conversations
As we said in our Being 12 series this spring, it's no secret that being 12 years old can be tough. At 12, kids shed layers, test new roles and transform before our eyes as they explore what kind of...
View ArticleFox and Trump Throw Kelly Under the Bus; ADHD as a Secret Superpower; Our...
Fox News and Donald Trump have ended their spat, with Fox’s chairman calling Trump to make amends. Hear what this says about who’s driving Fox’s content: the network or the audience. Plus: ADHD is the...
View ArticleHow To Fix the National Teacher Shortage
States are dealing with severe teacher shortages across the country. Dan Brown, co-director of Educators Rising, talks about how the profession might adapt to attract more highly-qualified and...
View ArticleTeachers, What Keeps You Going?
Many teachers quit. One statistic says half of teachers leave after five years. So for those who keep on going, how do you do it? What’s your formula for staying inspired? And how are you coping with...
View ArticleThe Challenger Disaster: A Teacher's Legacy Lives On
Click on the audio player above to hear this interview.Thirty years ago today, students at Concord High School gathered around TV sets to watch their teacher, Christa McAuliffe, go on an unprecedented...
View ArticleDoes Race Matter in the Classroom?
Educator, writer and activist Pamela Lewis spent 11 years working as a teacher in the NYC public school system and argues that in order to be effective, educators cannot be colorblind and must...
View ArticleHelp Wanted: Immigrants in Limbo Can Now Apply to Become Teachers
The New York State Board of Regents approved regulations Tuesday allowing certain immigrants to apply for professional licenses, including teaching.The Obama Administration already implemented the...
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High School Reunion
Gary Sedlacek was a teacher for 42 years. Back in 1970, his first job out of college was teaching American literature in Omaha, Nebraska, introducing high school juniors to transcendental authors like...
View ArticleUniversity of Chicago's Free Speech Stand
University of Chicago's Dean of Students, John Ellision, sent a letter last week to the incoming class. Among other things, he wrote that the institution does not support trigger warnings or safe...
View ArticleThe Substitute
Being a substitute teacher has to be one of the most awkward and thankless jobs imaginable. There’s really no way to be prepared, because chances are you got called at 5:30 that morning to show up in...
View ArticleLong Island University's Labor Day Lockout
After a contract fight with the faculty union, Long Island University's administration told professors not to come to work this fall and replaced them with an entirely new staff. Scott Jaschik, editor...
View ArticleIn California, Bilingual Education on the Ballot this November
Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear this interview.In 2015, there were over six million students enrolled in California public schools. One in six of these students speak English as a second...
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How a former nun made millions by training teachers
Watch Video | Listen to the AudioJUDY WOODRUFF: Now another installment of our entrepreneur series.Emily Feistritzer, who was a Catholic nun in her youth, later became a teacher. In 2011, she created...
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[Unedited] Eugene Peterson with Krista Tippett
Eugene Peterson served as a pastor for 29 years. He is the author of over 30 books including "Answering God: The Psalms as Tools for Prayer," "The Pastor: A Memoir," and "The Message: The Bible in...
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Eugene Peterson — Entering Into What Is There
"Prayers are tools not for doing or getting, but for being and becoming." These are words of the beloved biblical interpreter, teacher, and pastor Eugene Peterson. Frustrated with the unimaginative way...
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This inner city school is a bridge to empowerment for children of color
Watch Video | Listen to the AudioHARI SREENIVASAN: New York City has many distinctions, but one of its more dubious ones is that it has one of the most segregated school systems in the country.Schools...
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The failure cycle causing a shortage of black male teachers
Watch Video | Listen to the AudioJUDY WOODRUFF: Finally: Professor Christopher Emdin teaches at Columbia University’s Teachers College.He explains why there are so few African-American males teaching...
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A Fast-Track to Get Artists Teaching in City Classrooms
New York City now has a record number of full-time, certified arts teachers in public schools. But many schools lag behind and a new program at Lincoln Center is trying to address the gap by providing...
View Article“Would you debate gravity?”: climate change in the classroom
While reporting on the Birth of Climate Change Denial, an episode for the United States of Anxiety podcast, we asked listeners and science teachers across the country to tell us about the challenges of...
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Using Digital Games — And Empathy — As Teaching Tools
Dr. Matt Farber, a social studies teacher at Valleyview Middle School in Denville, New Jersey, uses digital games in the classroom as a way to take his kids on impossible field trips, to back-in-time...
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Eugene Peterson — Entering Into What Is There
"Prayers are tools not for doing or getting, but for being and becoming." These are words of the legendary biblical interpreter, teacher, and pastor Eugene Peterson. Frustrated with the unimaginative...
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