I teach bilingual special education and I like guinea pigs.
This post originally appeared on Persephone Magazine in 2012, but remains just as true today. Cinco de Mayo commemorates the battle of Puebla where the Mexican army defeated the French. It is barely celebrated in Mexico and I hate it; I hate it with a passion and I get irrationally angry when I see what a […]
Susan recently wrote a piece about American-Americans and color-blindness that gave me ~*feelings*~, and it made me think, “How do we teach our children about race?” Let me begin by saying that children are not stupid.
Cinco de Mayo commemorates the battle of Puebla where the Mexican army defeated the French. It is barely celebrated in Mexico and I hate it; I hate it with a passion and I get irrationally angry when I see what a huge deal it is made out to be here in the U.S.
A state law calling for English-only in the public schools. A national movement of “Americanization.” Educators and administrators working to erase the home culture of their students. Sounds like today, right? Nope. Think 1900s Laredo, Texas and enter Jovita Idar and Leonor Villegas de Magnón who said, “Fuck that, our children deserve better.”
After my second year of teaching, my district had a “reduction in force” and “RIF”ed (“let go” in layman’s speak) every single first, second, third, fourth, and fifth year teacher.
The New York Times recently ran an article detailing the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s forays into education reform. According to the NYT, in 2009 the foundation spent $373 million on education.
In response to my defenses of teachers and the American public education system, people often ask me, “Mona, so what are we doing to support these struggling students that we hear so much about?” To this I answer, “RtI!”
As a bilingual educator, I often find myself fighting an uphill battle in regards to bilingual education. Many people, including fellow teachers, do not see the need for bilingual education and advocate for English-only programs for speakers of other languages. Some states have even gone so far as to outlaw bilingual education, and as such, […]
I am finding it very difficult to like Secretary of Education Arne Duncan these days. Recently he made some very discouraging comments regarding special education and essentially said that some states were giving their students with disabilities “a free ride.”
Social anxiety is not just being shy; social anxiety is not just being awkward. Shy people will still go to that party; they will still go out and try to have fun. Social anxiety is isolating yourself even though you want to go out and “have fun.”
I was in a graduate class the other night and we began discussing the subject of culture and its role in the classroom. A fellow student, who I will call “Amy,” began talking about how multicultural her preschool room is; she has books and posters all over that feature children from all different races and […]
Recently, while procrastinating on the internets (my favorite pastime), I ran across this piece of satirical math and it got me thinking about teachers’ salaries. The author suggests that by paying them as babysitters, teachers would in fact earn more money than they do now. This fascinated me because of how often we teachers are treated […]
It’s that dreaded time of year again for teachers: standardized testing time. The Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) begins February 28th, and I get the joy of having five third-graders who will be taking this exam.