Reducing Anxiety in First Year of Teaching

Title: In First Year of Teaching, Acting More, Reacting Less, Can Reduce Anxiety 
Source/Author/Date: neaToday, Sara Ketcham, 10/13/16
Url Link: neaToday
Key Points: In this article, a third year High School teacher dispenses some advice on how to survive your first year without drowning. She lays out some practical strategies for staying on top of work instead of letting it overwhelm you. She also emphasizes finding a healthy work/life balance, which is critical for maintaining your sanity.
Relevance While This is written for brand new teachers (which we all will be), the advice and tips are useful reminders for all teachers to try to implement not only to help them be better teachers, which obviously benefits their students as well.

Implicit Bias

Title: How The Concept Of Implicit Bias Came Into Being

Morning Edition NPR/Renee Montagne, David Greene/Oct 17, 2016

Link: How The Concept Of Implicit Bias Came Into Being

This interesting segment from Morning Edition talks about implicit bias: what it is and how it affects our society. Mahzarin Banaji, who co-created the theory of implicit bias 20 years ago, talks with the hosts about how our brains, and what we see around us, inform our biases. She also states how we need to ask ourselves why we feel as we do about something. We need to explore our feelings and thoughts to understand our biases.

"At any moment when we discover things about ourselves or about the world that are new, we have to expect the kind of reaction that we're getting. But the mark of an evolved society is how quickly do we come to terms with it" Mahzarin Banaji.


Relevance: Bias is such a relevant topic, especially in these tumultuous times. Hatred, bigotry, misogyny, homophobia; all these seem to meet us at every turn. We need to teach our children better ways to think deep thoughts and ask hard questions.

Teachers Pay Teachers

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Website Review
URL: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/

Teachers Pay Teachers is an open K-12 market for sharing or accessing resources that are either free or for cost. Whether you are just looking for resources or feeling ready to share your own, the basic free account is probably worth signing up for just so that you can have a look to see for yourself. For example, a quick search for SPED revealed quite a few available resources both free and for pay starting at $1. Resources are rated and Apps for both iPad and Android are available.

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Letter from Arne Duncan

Arne Duncan
An Open Letter from Arne Duncan to America’s Teachers
Published Online May 2, 2011
Education Week
Complete URL: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/05/02/30duncan.h30.html?tkn=LNZFXK1%2B29%2B6OKL8FnbkG3BnfU59%2Fs7EAJ6Z&cmp=clp-edweek

In honor of Teacher Appreciation Week, Arne Duncan, wrote a letter to America’s teachers. I will include a few quotes but recommend reading it for yourself.

“I consider teaching an honorable and important profession, and it is my goal to see that you are treated with the dignity we award to other professionals in society.”


“You have told me you believe that the No Child Left Behind Act has prompted some schools—especially low-performing ones—to teach to the test, rather than focus on the educational needs of students. Because of the pressure to boost test scores, NCLB has narrowed the curriculum, and important subjects like history, science, the arts, foreign languages, and physical education have been de-emphasized. And you are frustrated when teachers alone are blamed for educational failures that have roots in broken families, unsafe communities, misguided reforms, and underfunded schools systems. You rightfully believe that responsibility for educational quality should be shared by administrators, community, parents, and even students themselves.”
The intended audience is teachers. This article is relevant because it is from the, Secretary of the US Dept. of Education.

TEACHERS =/= ENEMY

"Teachers Aren't the Enemy" by Pedro Noguera and Michelle Fine

The Nation

May 9, 2011

Summary/Key Points: Noguera and Fine give a strong, bipartisan rundown of recent events in both the teacher-bashing and teacher-lauding trends. They mention the last-in-first-out policy, recent developments from the Hill and its policymakers, and discuss some specific local teacher-friendly events. One particularly alarming piece of polemic comes from New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who has invoked the historically-weighted term "final solution" when talking about his plan for education, after "slash[ing] school aid by $1.2 billion."

Intended Audience: general public

Relevance: The Nation is a fun journal-- not really particularly left-leaning or right-leaning, they are just strongly against obviously broken systems and terrible ideas, and both the democrats and republicans are offering up a lot that fits within that criteria right now. Anyway! It is good to keep on top of current events in education, and summary articles like this that both lambast and uphold are valuable condensations.

Slam Poetry on What Teachers Make

Taylor Mali, What Teachers Make (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxsOVK4syxU)
Social media viral video
October 24, 2006

Summary: A controversial bit of slam poetry denigrating those who judge teachers as a professional class. His basic argument is that teachers are much more than they are given credit for.

Intended Audience: Those who enjoy slam poetry, teachers, those who judge teachers

Key Points: 1) Teachers are awesome, 2) Those who disagree are, well, not awesome

Relevance: Regardless of the merits of the theoretical framework Mali is working within, it is clear that knows how to engage people. Something is to be said about an educator who knows how to engage, challenge, and care about his students. Judging from his bit, he would be a tough teacher (he taught in New York City for an extended period of time), but I would rather have a teacher who cares and is passionate than one who is not. This is not a particularly "deep" topic in any regard, but it is a useful example of a number of admirable qualities (and perhaps undesirable techniques)--certainly useful to think about and enjoy.