As this challenging year comes to an end, here are some steps you can take now to get ready for a smoother return to your classroom in the fall.

Insights about how our students learn best that were gained while working remotely will be helpful when we all return to the classroom.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the end of the school year was a popular time for class trips. This year, you don’t have to completely forgo those experiences; you and your students can embark on virtual field trips instead.

When an assessment is well-designed and aligns with standards, the idea of “teaching to the test” sheds its negative connotation.

I joined a Facebook group called Teaching with Neons, where teachers come together and share virtual Bitmoji classrooms or various themes for us to edit and use. Our schoolwide Brain Power program inspired me to bring this brain break room to my...

A young teacher discovers that, while students may forget what educators say, they will never forget how they made them feel.

We can help students develop a better understanding of both the world and their place in it by using the world around us to teach in a way that invites critical thinking, draws on multiple perspectives and reflects who we are in the 21st century.


Culturally relevant pedagogy can give students the skills, knowledge and dispositions to change systemic inequities. So teachers should examine and encourage ways to imbue their students with a sense of their own identities.

Long-time student Jillian Demery is now a second-year teacher, making the grade at the front of the classroom, teaching 5th-grade special ed students. Her accounting background, she says, has helped prepare her for remote learning. A self-described...

Kathleen Taylor is an American Sign Language interpreter for the city Department of Education, providing interpreting services for students, staff and parents at meetings and events such as parent-teacher conferences and suspension hearings.