Didn’t recognize us, did you?
Teacher Magazine not only looks different, its content has changed considerably. Since 1989, we’ve served the teaching profession with distinction, as several nominations for National Magazine Awards attest. But every year, K-12 education gets more complicated. Technology plugs students and teachers into a global classroom. NCLB puts stringent demands on public schools. Students, meanwhile, have more educational options than ever—traditional, subject-oriented, home-based, etc. Simply navigating the terrain is difficult, and Teacher believes that the best students and schools are guided by the boldest innovators: teacher-leaders. This redesigned magazine is for you.
Here’s how the new Teacher works. Each of 2006-07’s six issues will focus on a theme. The first is “Achievement” —the ways that schools elevate academic standings for all students. This issue’s three feature stories—“Full Court Verse,” “Rising Up,” and “Burning Man”—address the theme, as do the Research, Best Practices, and Ask the Mentor pages in “Extra Credit.” Filling out that section are a reader-submitted photo, book reviews, coverage of technology and lifestyle issues, and op-ed pieces. The front of the magazine is called “Currents.” As the moniker implies, it offers news analyses as well as a survey of educational trends in various formats—statistics, charts, lists, quick-hit summaries, a poll, and an interview with filmmaker and Transcendental Meditation advocate David Lynch.
Our aim is to provide teacher-leaders with the tools and information necessary to help steer reform. For more, visit the redesigned www.teachermagazine.org. The magazine’s online-only features—chats, blogs, “talkbacks,” and poll questions—give you the chance to be heard and to connect with other educators.
The tagline for the new Teacher sums up what teacher-leaders do best. We hope our magazine will do the same for you: “Lead. Learn. Innovate. Inspire.”
—Rich Shea, Executive Editor
