In March 2020, most school districts in the US moved to fully online instruction as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. With this radical and unprecedented change, middle school teachers have had to adjust to the...

As educational leaders look to the start of the 2020-2021 school year, the only thing for sure is the uncertainty of the situation with the COVID-19 pandemic. How school opens will largely be based on the situation in...

I’m a parent of a middle schooler and a high schooler, a teacher, and the president of my district’s teachers’ union. I’m one “hat” short of an identity crisis, but it does give...

Martin Luther King, Jr reminds us that, “Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable... Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and...

Today’s middle school classrooms look very different than they did 30 years ago. With a focus on the whole child and a wider range of backgrounds and experiences represented within the student body, finding...

Middle school teachers must be leaders who demonstrate courage and collaboration (National Middle School Association, 2010). Such leaders are needed today more than ever. But leadership is especially difficult when...

Oftentimes the terms culture and climate are bandied about as an inseparable pair in school settings. Rarely in my experience are they broken down into their respective domains to parse out their specific purpose and...

When it comes to student success, a positive school culture can be as important as the curriculum. When students are engaged, motivated, and empowered, academic success will almost always follow. This is especially...

Building and sustaining a positive school culture is the all-encompassing factor of a successful school. It is not a system. It is not a program. It is a way of being. And even when putting time, money, and energy...

John Dewey (1959), a great philosopher and educational theorist of the 1950s, had already warned us about the importance of an educational focus on the student rather than on the teacher. He argued that classroom...