Opinion
Teaching Opinion

As He Retires, Larry Ferlazzo Reflects on Decades of Teaching

By Lauren Santucci — July 11, 2025 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Ahead of his retirement after more than two decades in the classroom, California teacher and author Larry Ferlazzo sat down with Education Week to answer some questions and share his thoughts on the profession and the future of education.

Since 2010, he has been the curator and writer for the Education Week Opinion blog, Classroom Q & A With Larry Ferlazzo. He has included the contributions of more than a thousand educators in that space, reaching millions of readers on classroom management, instructional practice, and other challenges teachers face.

Ferlazzo has no plans to stop writing or teaching. He will continue his Education Week opinion blog and plans to be a volunteer teacher to incarcerated youth this fall.

How do you build relationships with students?

What is the value of inductive teaching?

What is the key to student motivation?

Related Tags:

Jaclyn Borowski, Director of Photography & Videography and Elizabeth Rich, Assistant Managing Editor, Opinion contributed to this opinion article.

Events

College & Workforce Readiness K-12 Essentials Forum Career and Technical Education Takes Its Next Big Step
Join this free virtual event to hear creative approaches to modernize CTE programs and navigate the shift away from a near-exclusive focus on "college preparedness."

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Teaching EdWeek’s Ultimate PD Reading List Is Here
EdWeek's crowd-sourced PD reading list is here! See your top book recommendations and ask an author some questions.
2 min read
A summer scene of sunny blue skies and flowers with several book titles overlayed on top. Titles include: Leaders Eat Last, Power Up Your Math Community, I Love This Place, Just Do This, Rethinking Mathematics and Disability, Intentional Moves: How Skillful Team Leaders Impact Learning, The Kids Who Aren't Okay, Write Beside Them, How Children Succeed, Get Better Faster 2.0, Leadershift, The Digital Delusion, Anxious Generation, and Portrait of a Leader
Education Week + Canva
Teaching Opinion Teach For America's New CEO: 'We're Working to Reinspire Belief' in Public Education
The new TFA chief explains what’s behind a 43% uptick in its incoming class.
6 min read
The United States Capitol building as a bookcase filled with red, white, and blue policy books in a Washington DC landscape.
Luca D'Urbino for Education Week
Teaching Opinion How You Can Teach Students to Be More Grateful
When students learn to look for the good, they’re building far-reaching habits.
10 min read
Conceptual illustration of classroom conversations and fragmented education elements coming together to form a cohesive picture of a book of classroom knowledge.
Sonia Pulido for Education Week
Teaching Opinion Teachers: Here's How Your Students Say You Can Reach Them
High schoolers advise teachers on what it takes to get students interested in learning.
6 min read
Conceptual illustration of classroom conversations and fragmented education elements coming together to form a cohesive picture of a book of classroom knowledge.
Sonia Pulido for Education Week