Tag: Social Justice

Trying to Build A Great Classroom Culture For All Students? Here Are 5 Things Anyone Can Do.

I just got back from an amazing professional learning session delivered by Kentucky State University’s Dr. Roger Cleveland. In the session, he had us do an equity activity that absolutely made my jaw drop. Here’s how it worked. We were each given five index cards and were instructed to write different labels that identify ourselves, like race, faith, sexual orientation,…

#ArmMeWith What Makes A Real Difference

On January 23rd, 2018, students and teachers across the state were horrified when the Marshall County High School shooting occurred in Benton, Kentucky. The effects of the tragedy were felt statewide. Classroom educators watched and waited as fear and trepidation fell over our classrooms like dominoes knocked loose in a hectic array of patterns as politicians began arguing whether or…

Want to Close Achievement Gaps? Know Why They Exist in the First Place

There’s a sad reality in our education system today: Some students just don’t do as well as others. I realize I’m not breaking news here, but the fact that there’s such a disparity between students from poor families and communities and students from solid middle-class families is bad for everyone. The fact that minority students historically fall far behind their…

Banning ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ Because It Makes You Uncomfortable Isn’t How You Learn

Biloxi, Mississippi made news when its public school district pulled Harper Lee’s classic “To Kill a Mockingbird” from its eighth-grade reading list earlier this month. When pressed, the Biloxi School Board stated that the acclaimed Southern novel was pulled because some parents and students felt uncomfortable with it being taught at the eighth-grade level, given its themes of inequality and racism and…