There have been some recent articles in the Philadelphia Inquirer about turnover issues in the teaching profession. Sometimes referred to as ‘churn’, this turnover is destructive to the profession of teaching and the articles did offer some salient observations about this problem. I believe that a look at the larger picture of teacher turnover is […]
Category Archives: Teaching in urban schools
Are we really engaged in an argument about bathroom rights? It seems that way, but I believe that this is just obfuscation for prejudice and hatred of the other – in this case, it is directed against the LGBQT community and by extension, any community that is not white or straight. I want to share […]
This photograph is from the John Mosely collection and was taken in 1962. The demonstration took place at the construction site for the public school at Strawberry Mansion, and the people in the neighborhood were protesting because all of the construction workers were white – the construction took place in an African American community and […]
Recently a former colleague of mine passed away. We were both on the faculty at an urban middle/high school in Philadelphia and her passing made me think about the feelings that I had when she transferred to another Philly high school. I believed, at that time, that a teacher should have a clear […]
This will at least be the beginning of the telling of this story. I recently read an article in The Atlantic that was titled ‘Why Teachers of Color Quit’. This article was brought to my attention by a former teacher friend and colleague, and the article resonated with me, making me think again about the […]
Since the new school year is about to begin, I am reaching out to Philly public school teachers to share some thoughts about two articles that came to my attention in the last few days. The first article was in the Inquirer from Aug 18th, 2015, and concerned a $2 million Gates grant given to […]
I was feeling frustrated and burned out after five years of teaching in an urban middle/high school. Looking for ways to rejuvenate my mind and my practice I began turning to the idea of joining teacher networks. There were three networks that provided the spark that I was looking for – Seeking Educational Equity and […]
It seems that public education is eliciting many opinions, especially from the mayoral candidates, about how to fund schools and what do to about the SRC. Sanity levels seem to be rising as most of the candidates favor eliminating the SRC (a good move). Replacing the SRC brings out varying positions, but that is a […]
I recently read an article by Doyin Oyeniyi titled “Why I’m only reading books by Writers of Color in 2015”, and it made me reflect back to a time in my teaching career when I only used writers of color in my English class in a public middle school in Philadelphia. In the mid 1990’s […]
I have been reading John Lewis’ memoir “Walking With the Wind” and Taylor Branch’s “At Canaan’s Edge” to refresh my memory about the events surrounding the March from Selma to Montgomery in preparation of seeing the movie “Selma” that has just been released. I have included a picture of the Edmund Pettis Bridge across the […]
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