While conducting research for my book Chalkboard Champions, I learned a great deal about various types of schools that I had never heard about in my thirty-odd years as a teacher. Industrial schools, emancipation schools, farm schools, normal schools, Read More......

Today is "Take Your Children to the Park...and Leave Them There Day," founded by Lenore Skenazy four years ago. Makes sense-- kids spend well over 50 hours each week gazing at glass screens living in a world dominated by creepy adults who like to make Read More......

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I'm pretty excited to announce that my book, Chalkboard Champions: Twelve Remarkable Teachers Who Educated America's Disenfranchised Students, has been added to the catalogues of nine more public libraries in the Southern California area. These libraries Read More......

While conducting research for my book Chalkboard Champions, I learned a great deal about numerous types of schools that I had never heard about in my thirty-odd years as an educator. Industrial schools, emancipation schools, farm schools, normal schools, Read More......

While in the process of conducting research for my book Chalkboard Champions, I learned about many types of schools that I had never heard about in the thirty-odd years I have been a professional educator. Industrial schools, emancipation schools, freedom Read More......

While I was conducting research for my book Chalkboard Champions, I was surprised to learn a great deal about numerous types of schools, more than I ever learned in the thirty-odd years I had been teaching. Industrial schools, soup schools, farm schools, Read More......

What first comes to mind when we think about the number 25? It is a square number given by 5 2 ? A quarter of a hundred? Or that movie The 25th Hour by Spike Lee where Barry Pepper was just so badass as a rogue Wall Street trader? Well here are a few Read More......

I was really surprised to learn that former First Lady Pat Ryan Nixon had been employed for several years in the 1930's as a business teacher at Whittier Union High School in Whittier, California. In fact, she was working as a teacher when she met her Read More......

This year in my district ( Union R-XI ) we are undergoing quite a few changes. The most significant changes are related to an entirely new educator evaluation system, a significant curriculum realignment due to the CCSS, and lastly, five new administrators Read More......

I was very surprised to learn that President Lyndon Johnson had once been a schoolteacher in Cotulla, Texas, where he taught a class junior high school class comprised primarily of Mexican American students, and then as a high school speech and debate Read More......

Some years I fish, with joy and exuberance, ecstatic at the pull of an animal on the end of the line. Other years, I avoid it, acknowledging the pain and cost of life to the fish. It's not something I'm ever going to resolve.... T his was written two Read More......

I assign one major project, paper, or speech per month per class, and I’m often asked how I keep up with the grading load. While there are many ways to keep up with the paper load, I tend to rely most on allowing students to choose their due dates. I Read More......

So an “enlightened” student calls out a “terrible” teacher and the nation takes notice. It doesn’t bother me so much that a “terrible” teacher, teaching by packet may finally be getting his/her comeuppance so much as the belief that a minute and thirty Read More......

Every Chalkboard Champion knows that positivity in the classroom generates positivity in return. Here's a tangible example of that which I learned one year, quite by accident. You know how at the beginning of every year we are asked to complete a form Read More......

Almost a quarter century ago, my eldest and I wandered around Liberty State Park in the shadow of the Lady herself, trying out various foods at an international festival. Folks were amused at her voracious boldness, I was amused at their amusement. I Read More......

For any teacher who is teaching a course in U.S. History, or for anyone who is intrigued by the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950's and 1960's, this slender volume is a must-read. The book contains an inspirational collection of true stories by thirty Read More......

I was fascinated by this little book that tells anecdotes about our nation's presidents and first ladies as students and as teachers. In addition, the book describes the educational issues the presidents addressed during their White House years, the complications Read More......

The setting was Education Nation 2.0 2011 at Stanford University. Yeah it has been two years, but this still very much applies today. So as we look back, think of today. "Master interviewer and PBS host Charlie Rose and a distinguished panel of luminaries Read More......

Carrie McLain was born in 1895 in Astoria, Long Island, New York. When she was just a child of ten, her father moved Carrie and her four siblings to the fledgling village of Nome on the ice-crusted coast of northwestern Alaska. There she grew to adulthood, Read More......