Teachers: What we need to do to fix schools
This is the companion piece to the previous post, in which teachers expressed their frustrations about the attacks on their profession. This piece is about a new report by 14 teachers from high-needs urban schools around the country about how to effectively improve conditions in these schools. The following was written by Larry Ferlazzo, an English teacher at Luther Burbank High School in Sacramento, Calif. He is the author of several books on education policy and practice, including English Language Learners: Teaching Strategies That Work, and maintains a popular resources blog for teachers. This appeared on the Teachers Magazine space at Education Week's website. By Larry Ferlazzo Few things in our world are helped by looking through an either/or lens. Reality, in my experience at least, is far too ambiguous to be seen as all one color or another. Unfortunately, many “school reformers”—often with little teacher consultation—come across as having
Teachers: How much more can we take?
This powerful piece and the one that follows will give flip sides of what teachers are living with today: deep frustration at being scapegoated, and determination to continue to find ways to improve schools and educate children. The post was written by John Norton, co-founder of the Teacher Leaders Network and first published on Teachers Magazine’s space on Education Week’s website. Norton, a former education journalist and vice president of the Southern Regional Education Board, is currently a communications consultant for the Center for Teaching Quality and the Alabama Best Practices Center. This is long but well worth the time to read every word. You can find more comments from teachers at the site. By John Norton During a recent chat in the Teacher Leaders Network daily online discussion group, it became apparent that many established, expert teachers who once planned to teach well into their 60s are now rethinking
