Tag: classrooms

Elementary School Teachers Talk About Managing Their Classrooms During A Pandemic – ‘Teaching Has Always Been Hard, But It’s Never Been Like This’
EDUCATION

Elementary School Teachers Talk About Managing Their Classrooms During A Pandemic – ‘Teaching Has Always Been Hard, But It’s Never Been Like This’

As the omicron wave spikes across the United States, K-12 education is one of many systems buckling under the weight of expanding needs. Recent headlines highlight staff and busing shortages, parental anxieties about both in-person and distance schooling and disputes between unions and districts. Yet teachers’ experiences in their classrooms can be overlooked in these conversations. As part of our research into teaching, since March 2020, we have been following the experiences of a group of elementary school teachers in one suburban school district in the Midwest. We’ve seen variations in teachers’ experiences and well-being over the course of the pandemic, yet our research suggests their situation continues to be incredibly challenging. In January 2022 – halfway through the school year...
Tens Of Thousands Of US Classrooms Will Be Too Hot For Students To Learn In As Heat Waves Intensify
EDUCATION, Journalism

Tens Of Thousands Of US Classrooms Will Be Too Hot For Students To Learn In As Heat Waves Intensify

Paul Chinowsky, University of Colorado Boulder Rising temperatures due to climate change are causing more than just uncomfortably hot days across the United States. These high temperatures are placing serious stress on critical infrastructure such as water supplies, airports, roads and bridges. One category of critical infrastructure being severely affected is the nation’s K-12 schools. Ideally, the nation’s more than 90,000 public K-12 schools, which serve over 50 million students, should protect children from the sometimes dangerous elements of the outdoors such as severe storms or extreme temperatures. But since so many of America’s schools are old and dilapidated, it’s the school buildings themselves that need protection – or at least to be updated for the 21st century. Twenty-eig...
Make Today’s Classrooms More Inclusive – How Lessons From Segregated Schools Can Help
EDUCATION

Make Today’s Classrooms More Inclusive – How Lessons From Segregated Schools Can Help

Sara Schley, Rochester Institute of Technology and Lissa Ramirez-Stapleton, California State University, Northridge The intent of school desegregation is clear: Black and white children should attend the same schools, and Black children should not be relegated to inferior buildings, learning materials and extracurricular activities. While separate-but-equal is no longer legal, the reality is that today many Black children do not experience inclusive public school education. Inclusive education not only responds to the needs, interests and backgrounds of Black children, but it also incorporates diverse learning – such as not teaching predominantly white history. As scholars of inclusive education, particularly for Black and deaf students, we believe public schools need to do much more to...