What Goes Up: More Than Just Data
I recently agreed to lead a short writing activity with my department at the start of a meeting. Here’s what I asked them to do: Think of a student who you are currently having a hard time with, for whatever reason. Now imagine that in ten years that student comes up to you in the […]
What’s Important to Keep When Unexpectedly Becoming an “Online” Teacher
“Honestly,” I said to my thirteen students from 11 different countries, “if teaching was a job that was only online, I wouldn’t be a teacher. I am here for the relationships. I am here to be with you. I have taken online classes, and I don’t remember the instructors or any of the other participants. […]
Building Community in the Age of Disconnection
EPIC Academy at Lamoille Union High School It’s 8:50 in the morning. Students are leaving their jigsaw puzzles and sleepy conversations and rollicking games of “Headbands” and finding a seat. Some choose bean bags or bungee chairs, a couple saddle up to bike desks and begin to aimlessly cycle, and still more plop down in […]
Speaking Up for Equity Takes Courage — But the Standards Have Your Back
Ruja Benjamin’s keynote at the 2018 Rowland Conference was a call to action. She implored us not just to talk about equity, but to put that knowledge to use, to act! It can be a challenge to determine how to take action against inequity. As educators we can feel disempowered, we may not know how […]
Creating Change Through What We Have in Common
This year, I am spending most of my day in the central area of MVU, called The Commons. This has caught many people off-guard for a few reasons. For one, I’m on sabbatical, so people assume I would be off traveling, or, as I imagine people who have no idea what a sabbatical of fellowship […]
When School Choice Isn’t Really a Choice
When school choice isn’t really a choice…A version of this piece originally appeared at VTDigger.org on 07/02/18 Much has been written about public schools vs. private schools (and vouchers, choices, etc.) in Vermont lately, but nothing I’ve read has gotten to the true heart of the conversation: School choice isn’t really school choice because not […]
Why I Fell Out of Love with my Job – and How I Learned to Fall in Love Again
I have the best job in the world; I get paid to learn! I have been teaching high school since 1981 and every day I learn something new about the subjects I teach–ancient history and philosophy- and my students teach me as well about who they are and how they learn. I have always been […]
Lessons from a Lacrosse Team
For nearly as many years that I taught Social Studies at Rutland High School, I also coached the girls’ lacrosse team. The teams over these six years had girls from all of the sending towns to Rutland High School, from all socio-economic strata, and from many different family constellations. Each year, the players came together […]
Inspiring Empathy through Artmaking
Inspiring Empathy Through Artmaking / Abbie Bowker / Champlain Valley Union High School “It is my duty to voice the sufferings of people, the sufferings that never end and are as big as mountains.” ― Käthe Kollwitz Art and empathy. There is rarely a better match. Since 2008, the Visual Arts Department at Champlain Valley […]