Benjamin D. Alvord is a history teacher at Clarke N. Johnsen in Tooele County School District. He has committed to a life in education after working for a decade in the corporate world and now has been teaching for 8 years. Find him @misteralvord. An original version of this piece appeared on Curio Learning. I teach 8th Grade U.S. history, a…
Tag: Teacher Quality
Rural Schools Need Equity Too
I just got home from a convening with the rest of the Kentucky State Teacher Fellows, where we had some long, tough conversations on equity in our schools. We’re preparing for later this fall, when schools across the Bluegrass are going to witness a major data collection blast from education groups and teacher leaders. The reason is simple: Kentucky is…
Bring Student Voice Back To Kentucky
Although Kentucky has now dropped this practice, one informal factor of teacher evaluations used to come in the form of student voice surveys. The surveys were introduced back in 2013 as part of Kentucky’s new professional growth and evaluation system (PGES), designed to make sure that teachers are growing in their skills and being held to high standards. As the…
An Open Letter To Kentucky’s Future Teachers
Dear Future Kentucky Educators, I have been worried about you. The truth is we all have been worried about you. To say that we are going through a tumultuous time in our profession is an understatement. A great deal of consternation has been around how we are going to be able to get you to join our profession. You are…
Kentucky Has A Slew of National Board Certified Teachers, And That’s Great For Students
I tend to find that a lot of conversations around education reform focus on the work we have left to do instead of celebrating the progress we’ve already made. But a couple weeks ago in Frankfort, there were a lot of reasons to celebrate. 3,601 reasons, as a matter of fact. That’s how many National Board Certified Teachers are currently…