Due to contracts and up front money, schools across the country are finding themselves stuck between the vending machine and a hard place.  Less than a year after the nation's largest beverage companies pledged to remove high-calorie drinks and limit sugary beverages in all schools, districts across the country are finding that they ...

My kindergarten grandson told me a few days ago that he was going to get to dissect a frog when he was older.  He told me that it was something he had to do because ''they don't give you a choice, Bee''.  I see the older kids are already spreading the news.  Boy did this bring back some memories!  Animal dissection and forced ...

Being neutral on important issues is a hard line to walk in the classroom.  Students question teachers constantly on how they plan to vote or how they feel about current topics in the news.  Legislators in Arizona want to force teachers to keep their opinions to themselves. In any class, any issue could be discussed as long as the ...

Mentoring programs are not new.  Veteran teachers are often paired with new teachers in order to help launch successful teaching careers.  This was not the case when I first started teaching.  I started my first year in a third grade classroom in a tough neighborhood school.  Most of my students had ...

In My Teenagers' Homework Ate Their Free Time, an article written by Jay Matthews of the Washington Post, a mother wishes her children actually had time to watch TV.  In responding to a question about homework vs. TV, she wrote: Although homework can be valuable for reinforcing and applying learned material, I think it has spun out of ...

As a former victim of bullying, I would like to think that others wouldn't have to endure the same school experiences that I did.  As a teacher, I tried numerous times to stop bullying but met with limited success.  Principal Alan J. Capasso of Greenwich High School started a mandatory anti-bias, anti-bullying ...

Test yourself on three questions from the 2004 standard eighth-grade reading test released by the Virginia Department of Education.  I credit washingtonpost.com with sharing this and making me laugh this morning, and I needed a laugh today.  So, go ahead, read the poem, and test yourself. Dragonflies Shimmering, they ...

Some students are receiving more than the traditional report card.  According to an article on nytimes.com  The practice of reporting students' body mass scores to parents originated a few years ago as just one tactic in a war on childhood obesity that would be fought with fresh, low-fat cafeteria offerings ...

I knew it would happen.  Yet another committee has decided that teachers are the ones to blame when students don't do well.  After all, they can't do anything about the parents or living situations that some of these children might have, so according to dallasnews.com a new report stresses the improvement of ...

Oprah is at it again.  It would be great if we all had her money and concern for others.  As reported on nationalpost.com Oprah has started a school to help disadvantaged girls to the tune of $40 million.  She had made a promise to Nelson Mandela, the former South African president, six years ago and kept it ...