A Rising Tide Will Lift All Boats
My parents immigrated to the United States from Central America, and I began my school career as an English Language Learner. Having graduated from Saint Ignatius College Preparatory in San Francisco, the University of California at Berkeley, Harvard Graduate School of Education, and Saint Mary’s Kalmanovitz School of Education, I understand what it means to…
Read MoreCultivating the Leadership Seed: My Journey with the CATDC
Debbie Reed began the first meeting of the Leadership Fellows Program with a story of her journey, when she was a girl, cutting out pictures of mythological creatures from magazines, knowing that someday she would use those clippings when she became the teacher she aspired to be. That journey would take Debbie through numerous schools,…
Read MoreTaking Off This Summer
As our school years finally end, and as we wrap up our culminating meetings in preparation for a quieter summer, I’m reminded of this powerful internal tool that allows us to recharge these next couple of months: the off-switch. For teachers, the off-switch may be an easier sell. Time away from school will allow teachers…
Read MoreSummer Reading List: Emotional Resilience, Deep Learning, and Culturally Responsive Teaching
LEADERSHIP The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups Effective schools have collaborative environments where teachers and staff are free to be innovative. As a leader, you are crucial in creating a culture that is safe, honors vulnerability, and has a clear mission and purpose. This book by Daniel Coyle offers a roadmap for…
Read MoreWhy Restorative Justice Practices and Community Matter More than Ever in the Era of School Shootings
This morning, like every morning when I park in a lot of the middle school where I am an assistant principal, questions flood my head in anticipation of the coming day. Which students will need academic support and interventions today? How can I best coach that teacher with her long-term lesson planning to increase her…
Read MoreHit Pause! And Other Advice to Round Out the School Year
I was talking with my colleague recently about shifting a slightly large school policy, and as we were hashing out the specifics, I started to do a quick body scan: I felt tired; I was a bit ornery, and my brain was processing at a slower rate. The conclusion: it’s May, and I’m feeling it.…
Read MoreApplying CATDC Practices of Learning and Leading to your own School Community
Over the past decade we, Cathy Aragon, Meredith Landis and Sylvia Rodriguez Douglass, have individually learned from many workshops and conferences provided by the CATDC. In the last year we found ourselves drawn into conversation, reflecting on what we brought away from these professional learning opportunities and recognizing the major themes in our work that…
Read MoreLessons from My First Year of Leadership
This year was my first as an administrative leader. After teaching for many years, I was promoted to interim division head and needed a crash course in effective leadership. Thankfully, the CATDC was offering an ongoing program for new leaders. The four meetings over the course of the year provided me with a network of…
Read MoreSo What Do White 4th Graders Have to Say About Race?
As it turns out, a lot. Twice a month I get to work with fourth graders at a local school. The district has a stated commitment to racial equity and has been considering culturally responsive strategies with faculty and staff. When some middle school students of color reported a series of racial microaggressions, the administration…
Read MoreDescribing Student Experiences in the Math Classroom
In a sentence or two, describe what your students did in class today. Go ahead. Don’t be shy. Talk to your device. Or engage in this activity with a colleague. Lessons. Tasks. Investigations. Projects. Problems. Worksheets. Labs. Assignment. Handouts. Exercises. Classwork. Did you use any of these terms in your description? Regardless of your answer,…
Read MoreWhy Teaching Foundations Matters to Me: A Personal Reflection
We’re in the process of preparing for one of my favorite professional development workshops, Teaching Foundations. Each year around this time, we start our planning, and I already can’t wait to meet the participants and begin an inspiring week together. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about teacher preparation for those who are new to…
Read MoreMake Your Dumb Smart
Most of us know the times of day and days of the week when we do our best work. Tuesday mornings I feel like I am on fire, getting lots done with all cylinders firing. By Friday afternoons, though, I feel burned out. I am tired, daunted by the pile that has accumulated in my…
Read MoreLet the Nervous Come Out (And Other Advice From Kids)
Watch this first. the Scared is scared from Bianca Giaever on Vimeo. February is a great time for storytelling and story listening. Whether in California or Vermont, there is an inherent coziness of the month, nestled between the January return and the sight of spring to come. I recently rewatched one of my all-time favorite…
Read MoreProviding a FAIR² Experience for All: Five Elements of an Inclusive Classroom
The more I read in the field of education, and the longer I work with teachers, visit classrooms, and research up-to-date best practices, the more I see the integration among mind, body, and heart. In other words, the more I learn about brain science, and mindfulness, and social-emotional learning, and design thinking, and culturally responsive…
Read MoreAcknowledge and Honor Culture, Language, and Lived-Experience: Key Takeaways from the Progressive Education Network National Conference
When I landed in Boston, I felt a sense of nostalgia. I was born and raised in Richmond, Virginia, so I was far from home and childhood memories. Still, the changing color of the leaves from bold green to a spectrum of reds, burgundies, oranges, and yellows alongside the auburn brick buildings sent me right…
Read More