Last night, students at Joliet Central – the high school where I work – held the first annual Showcase for Peace: Joliet students creatively expressing their stance on gun violence. We had students submit poetry, essays, stories, songs, artwork, and… Read more ›
Ever since the Parkland shooting, I have been feeling progressively worse. I’m not really sure how to describe it, but it started with a feeling like someone was standing on my chest. Then, it was almost like a balloon had… Read more ›
It is so short and jumbled and jangled, Sam, because there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre. Everybody is supposed to be dead, to never say anything or want anything ever again. Everything is supposed to be very… Read more ›
I am a teacher. So is my husband. It probably won’t surprise you that, between the two of us, we’ve been through three actual lockdowns. Not drills. Actual, bonafide, real-life, doors-locked, no-one-knows-what-is-going-on, saying-goodbyes-just-in-case lockdowns. One for Tim at his previous school.… Read more ›
I’ve been on The Guardian twice in the past few weeks! First, I was talking about keeping guns out of my classroom: We don’t need more guns in schools. We need more empathy and compassion. We need to make dealing… Read more ›
This morning, I contacted the editor I’ve been working with at The Guardian. I accepted an assignment from her earlier in the week to write a piece about the Common Core. I’m over the moon that she thinks of me when education-related… Read more ›
I have my first ever piece up at The Guardian today! I’m so totally excited!! The piece is published in the Comment is Free section today, and I’m talking about armed guards in schools: On Monday, Congressman Mark Meadows, a… Read more ›
Today, I’m over at In These Times talking about why having armed guards or police officers in schools is a terrible idea: I have spent most of my life in a school setting: first as a student, then as a… Read more ›
It sounds cliché, but I will always remember that, on December 14, 2012, I was sitting in our building’s athletic office preparing for the conference speech tournament when I heard the news that 20 children and 6 adults had been… Read more ›