Some people are naturals at personal productivity, others have to learn it. I’m definitely the latter. My first year teaching, I was so awful at managing my time that I would go days in a row without sleeping more than five hours a night. One day, it got so bad that I fell asleep at…
Category: Scalable Solutions
Scalable solutions to systemic problems can come in three forms: Systems & Processes, Policy & Politics, Community Organizing & Movement Building. The most powerful solutions combine all three.
3 Education Blogs You’ll Want to Read
1. Teach for Us is a site where Teach for America teachers and alum post their thoughts on education. It has a fun mix of posts from current Teach for America teachers who are posting about their day to day lives, Teach for America alum who document their (inevitable) change in attitudes and beliefs about…
The Ultimate iPhone App for Teachers: Dash4Teachers Makes Contacting Parents Easy and Enjoyable
Teachers, listen up. If you could download only one iPhone app, ever again, make it this one. Dash4Teachers is available in the App Store for $4.99. It is literally the most indispensable iPhone app that I’ve used as a teacher, and I love it so much that I’m going to spend a whole post convincing…
The First Necessary Ingredient in School Reform is Trust
One of the lessons I learned this year, that I did not realize before becoming a teacher, is that trust is paramount to the functioning of an effective school and school system. I teach at a school, for example, that does not give teacher tenure and that does not use last-in, first-out, to determine who…
Dialogue
I feel, sometimes, that people who care deeply about education often talk past each other instead of engaging with each other at a deeper level to work through disagreements in order to build solutions. It’s like there are two opposing sides just shouting at each other from across an imaginary line drawn in the sand…
Keeping Track of Your Finances: The Easy Way
SHORT STORY | The answer to all your finance tracking woes is Xpenser.com. Go there, now. LONG STORY | One of the issues as a new teacher, I find, is dealt with completely outside of the classroom, and that’s finances. I’m just not used to keeping track of where I spend my money or documenting anything throughout…
Changing School Governance
Charter schools have largely been a niche operation, serving few students relative to the number of students served by traditional public school systems. Successful charter schools have also generally been seen as a specific intervention, a model for another, single, excellent school. However, the conversation has shifted in recent years to charter schools as structural…
Family First
I had been in a funk over the weekend and the first three days of the week. Literally, no desire to work, breaking down if anyone probed me on how I was doing, and basically feeling like nothing was going well. It was the worst I had felt since the first week of school.
Why Teach For America?
My students come on Monday. I am terrified. There is nothing like it, the first day of being a teacher in my own classroom, MY classroom. I have so much to do. My long term plan (LTP) is in shambles, because I may be completely changing the order I’ll be teaching units. My unit plan…
Deborah Chang 