The Blog

You can’t teach the book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and not discuss the n-word. Ignoring it is irresponsible. So, how does a teacher engage her class in a discussion around this very controversial and complicated word? 

My current teaching context is a small...

I’ve had many difficult teaching moments. Some were a result of my own doing, yet many were a result of systemic inequalities that bled into the four walls of my classroom. I once had a student drop out of his junior year in order to work full time so he could help his family back home in...

I didn’t realize how unprepared I was for Trump’s election. I had simply not thought that result through. Immediately I began receiving text messages. My father’s words to all of his children will stay with me. I was teary-eyed as I dropped Analiz off at school. I cried a bit...

Recently, I wrote a response to the Larry Ferlazzo’s Classroom Q & A blog question: What are good strategies teachers can use when exploring “controversial” topics? Since my courses are infused with what folks consider to be controversial topics, this was somewhat...

Teaching at Headwaters is quite the change of pace & style for me. The main differences are the creative autonomy I have and the student academic freedoms they enjoy.  I wrote more about that here.

What are the main differences? 

1. Debriefing class/lessons.

2....

After teaching at an oppressive, regimented, “turn around” school district, I can now say I know what it means to be academically free. Those who’ve taught in such spaces understand what I mean when I use those words above. It’s a space where all my steps are watched, all...

As part of a professional development session, we offered about racial identity and how that relates to teaching, we discussed Caliban from Shakespeare’s The Tempest. We analyzed him as the first indigenous person in the Western literary imagination. We thought about how he was...