Teacher in a Strange Land
From January 2010 to September 2018, Nancy Flanagan, an education writer and consultant focusing on teacher leadership, wrote about the inconsistencies and inspirations, the incomprehensible, immoral and imaginative, in American education. She spent 30 years in a K-12 music classroom in Hartland, Mich., and was named Michigan Teacher of the Year in 1993. This blog is no longer being updated, but you can continue to explore these issues on edweek.org by visiting our related topic pages: teacher leaders.
Equity & Diversity
Opinion
We Need Women in Education Leadership Roles
Our statistics are striking. Over half the people in the United States are women. Over half. But the fact remains that half the population has little political voice nor is it enmeshed in a political structure that embodies the knowledge, skills, talents, and gifts of the feminine.
Teaching Profession
Opinion
Misguided Things People Say About Public Schools
The unexamined national goal now seems to be a productive, compliant workforce, at the lowest cost, not an educated citizenry. Instead of building on our public education infrastructure, we talk about "failing schools," and bogus international testing data.
Teaching
Opinion
The Disadvantages of Competitive Learning
I told my students I had assessed their prowess as musicians, and tried to divide the groups evenly, so nobody would be in the "top" band--or left behind. Our job was to play well all the time, to live up to our potential as performers--not to be better than the other band. It took a while, but this policy eventually led to greater achievement, especially from students who did not start out at the top of the skills spectrum.
Equity & Diversity
Opinion
What 'Hillbilly Elegy' Doesn't Say
"Hillbilly Elegy" is impressive personal narrative--plaudits to Vance for his persistence--but hardly illustrative of poor habits and prospects of an entire region of the country. Nor does it illuminate any of the very real problems--crises, per the book's title-- facing working-class families in America today, beginning with the dangerous income gap between the haves and the have-nots that threatens the social order.
Teaching Profession
Opinion
The Kids Are All Right
I am fortunate; I get to spend time in a range of public schools, as observer, presenter, consultant and, on occasion, substitute teacher. I know that the plural of anecdote is not data--but there are hundreds of thousands of vital examples of what needs highlighting and replicating in public education. Why aren't we focused, like a laser, on those?
Curriculum
Opinion
4 Reasons the Arts Are the Most Important Academic Discipline
For arts teachers, this is the ongoing, contentious, core issue in their pedagogical practice: What is the value of what I do? How do I share my conviction that the arts are essential in the lives of children? Why does artistic expression typically carry less weight than other fields and specialties?
Teaching Profession
Opinion
Advice for New Teachers: Bring About Change
"New teachers: Don't stop speaking up when others may discount your thoughts, or make you feel as if you are too new to know any better."
Teacher Preparation
Opinion
Famous School Choice Pundit vs. Ordinary Teacher
While I toiled away at what you termed the retail level, you, Checker Finn, studied the research, analyzed the data, and made pronouncements impacting education across the nation. It's interesting to think that you have, in many ways, shaped the work that I actually did. For decades.
Classroom Technology
Opinion
Why We Shouldn't Ignore Political Speech on Facebook
At the very least, engaging in substantive conversation about current events on a social media platform is good practice in dialogue, honing our values, and determining which sources are accurate. Our students live in this world. Turning away from the red-hot center of American political argument right now feels like abandoning democracy.
Teaching
Opinion
My Top 10 Reads of 2016
Ten books that rocked my world in 2016. A mix of fiction and non-fiction, all delicious.
Teaching
Opinion
We Can't Keep Quiet: What the Women's March Means for Teachers
I'm still processing the experience, considering what it means, today and for the next few years. As a teacher, an advocate for public education and for children, how do I reconcile "alternative facts" and fake news with the essential and important truth of millions feeling compelled to gather and organize? How can any of us put our heads down and do as we're told, knowing what we know?
Teaching
Opinion
Students: You're the Reason I Come to School Every Day
School talk today is generally around rigorous content and 21st-century skills and how we can measure those to make schools accountable. There is, however, a much more powerful, if subtle, set of factors that makes going to school worthwhile for both students and teachers.
Teaching Profession
Opinion
What the Shortage of Substitute Teachers Says About Public Education
We ask more of babysitters, playground monitors and burger flippers than substitute teachers--more qualifications, more on-the-job training, more care in selecting and retaining the right person for the job. If you start with the bar for admission and reward extremely low, you're making a statement about the work, as well as the people willing to do it.
Federal
Opinion
Teacher in a Strange Land: Best Blogs of 2016
If you had told me--on New Year's Day, 2016--that we would end the year with Donald Trump headed to the White House (at least occasionally, to govern, if not to live) with Betsy DeVos as his nominee for Secretary of Education, well... it's hard to finish this sentence. Let's review 2016.