Inspiration
Hit 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 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 MoreVacations and Showers: Another Reason for Winter Break
At some point this week or next most of our schools will close for “Winter Break.” Why? Perhaps the most obvious reason for this school vacation is Christmas and Chanukah and the Judeo-Christian cultural norm to take an extended break during this time to celebrate and visit family. As educators, the vacation provides much needed…
Read MoreBuilding and Sustaining Community: What Matters Most in these Strange Times
In the opening episode of the Netflix hit series Stranger Things, a young boy goes missing, which catalyzes the community into uncovering the sordid secrets of their small town in an effort to find him. The young boy’s three friends, along with a special guest who comes into their lives, form an even deeper bond…
Read MoreIt’s Always October
Several years ago, when the San Francisco Giants were on their even-year World Series run (2010, 2012, 2014), there was a buzz in San Francisco that heightened our energy levels. It was a fun time to live and work here. And the notion of a heightened energy level seems appropriate for the month of October:…
Read MoreBack to School: Creating Safe, Equitable Spaces for All
Anyone who has been following the news this past summer has noticed much tumult in the world and in our nation. The marches and counter-protests in Charlottesville and Boston ring alarm bells for anyone who believes in a socially just world. It’s a chilling time to be a member of this nation, and as educators,…
Read MoreLean Into Discomfort: Developing Better Skills to Really Talk about Race in Schools
As we post this, events are unfolding in Charlottesville and across the nation that bring a new urgency to our need to increase our racial literacy. Yet, even as some of our school leaders denounce the white supremacy on display, there remain critical gaps and omissions in our words, our actions, and our understandings. Schools…
Read More“Make Box Brownies”: A Summer Pilgrimage
For educators, summer means many things: catching up on all the TV and books one missed during the school year; taking vacations; sleeping in; engaging in enriching and rejuvenating professional development. In addition to preparing for CATDC’s Teaching Foundations program, I’m participating in an activity my coach and I call a “summer pilgrimage.” Sometimes good…
Read MoreSummer School: Gearing Up for Teaching Foundations 2017
We’re well into the 21st Century, and the buzzwords of a new era are part of our daily lexicon now: project-based learning, design thinking, differentiation, personalization. And as the culture of learning has changed in this century, so has the definition of teacher. Whereas once upon a very long time ago, it was okay (I’m…
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