Goodbye Singing Children? by Michelle Myre

One little girl broke my heart to pieces today with her response when she realized she was singing and shouldn’t be. Isn’t that just absolutely backwards?!! The shock in her eyes as she realized, stopped singing and began humming was simply and beautifully painful for me to witness.

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Michael Flanagan
This is the Teacher Shortage by Ashley Davis

Use your voice, teacher friends. Ask questions. Be a pain in the ass. Don't go along with unrealistic or unneccessary rules from your district. And for the love of everything, DON'T WORK OUTSIDE OF CONTRACTUAL HOURS. If you can't get something done in the time you've been paid to do it, then what they are asking of you is unrealistic or unfair, and they're abusing you. Don't be afraid to say as much.

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Michael Flanagan
Warp Speed, Mozart, and Page Not Found by Grumpy Old Teacher

This past week, GOT has been involved in putting students through a retake test for Algebra 1, for which students must earn a pass or they will not receive a diploma. As usually happens, someone decided right before this crucial computer test to change something. The software broke and chaos ensued as we spent hours reconnecting student laptops to all the needed networks so they could access the testing platform.

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Michael Flanagan
A Free Lunch for All by Grumpy Old Teacher

Schools should provide meals for all children. The wealthy, those with high incomes, can do their part by paying more taxes to support schools. Postscript: As an added bonus, the pandemic-brought federal funding of a free lunch for any child who needs or wants one has brought the end of lunch-shaming. Isn’t that a good thing?

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Michael Flanagan
CRT -Let's Clear This Up by Cheryl Gibbs Binkley

Critical Analysis can influence how teachers and policy makers choose what they teach and how they teach it, or determine what policies are most fair, but it is not a good choice for direct K-12 instruction because it requires understanding words like structural determinism, epistemology, and deconstructionism- among a lot of other philosophical and critical analysis terms.

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Michael Flanagan
Saint Louis School Board Stalls Privatization Agenda by Thomas Ultican

The August 19th headline in the Saint-Louis Post Dispatch reported a new plan “sparks school board outrage.”The board accused Better Futures STL of trying to usurp its role. Better Futures soon cancelled the launch of its new program and Superintendent Kelvin Adams apologized for not sharing the extent of his involvement in a plan described as “a new St. Louis education blueprint that serves all children.”

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Michael Flanagan
The Delta Variant Meets Open Schools Now by Thomas Ultican

Until we can vaccinate all students and school staff, prudence says conduct on-line school. Even with the delta variant younger children appear not to be quite as susceptible, it might be safe to bring them into schools if everyone is masked and ventilation is up to par. Until we get all students over 12 and all staff vaccinated, we must use common sense which means stop face to face school.


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Michael Flanagan