Barbara
In 1985 photographer Andrea Modica had taken a teaching job in upstate New York when she first met Barbara who was six years old. She continued to photograph Barbara for the next 16 years. Produced by...
View ArticleCutting Arts Education
Visual Thinking Strategies is an innovative method for teaching art that students and teachers love. It's designed to flourish in poorly funded schools, but it isn't immune to the cutbacks. Produced...
View ArticleCutting Arts Ed
Visual Thinking Strategies is an innovative method for teaching art that students and teachers love. It’s designed to flourish in poorly funded schools, but it isn’t immune to the cutbacks. Produced by...
View ArticleTeaching With One Eye Open
Dana Lawit began teaching at the Kurt Hahn Expeditionary Learning School in Brooklyn in 2007. A licensed special education teacher, she won the Gaynor McCown Excellence in Teaching Award in 2010. She...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Student Advises: How to Be a Better Teacher
Students talk a lot about what they want from their teachers. In an opinion post, Iniko Thornell, 13, put it in writing. Iniko, who lives in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, suggested five ways teachers can...
View ArticleA Teacher Waits for 'Waiting for Superman, Part 2'
A charter school teacher offers his opinion on what is too often missing, he says, from the debate over improving schools.The results of the recent New York Times poll reflecting dissatisfaction with...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Finding the Child in the Behavior
Let’s play a game. I’ll give you some scenarios, and you decide which ones deserve to be punished with a suspension.a. A girl threatens to kick her pregnant teacher in the stomach after being...
View ArticleClik here to view.
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...
View ArticleClik here to view.
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...
View ArticleClik here to view.
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...
View ArticleClik here to view.
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...
View ArticleClik here to view.
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...
View ArticleClik here to view.
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...
View ArticleClik here to view.
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...
View ArticleClik here to view.
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 Article
