The year 1895 seems worlds away from the urban classroom where I pass most of my hours, but the connection I have to the words penned that year by Rudyard Kipling belies the time gap. “If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs…” even as I type that I am…

It has been harder to keep up with this blog than I anticipated. Whew! Special Education is a whole different ball game! I have started writing posts quite a few times, but before I can finish I am pulled back to planning, grading, calling parents, etc. Down time is hard to find, but I found…

With construction still in process, copy machines and printers out of service, room assignments in question, and scheduling still in process, we began school at 8am on Tuesday, September 6th.  It was exactly four months (to the day) that I was out of the classroom and yesterday as I was hurriedly assisting student’s acclimation to the new…

Who knew that my love for country music and education would so beautifully intertwine and create a sort of personal and professional motto. It is a simple lyric, sung to an obscure tune that says so efficiently what I feel about education reform: “Don’t tell me the sky is the limit when there are footprints…

If I knew then what I know now…I would do it all over again! Those three, seemingly, meaningless dots that make up an ellipsis tell the real story of Teach for America’s Institute. When put together, those menial periods hold the count of the hundreds of hours we poured over lessons, strategies, and data, the…