Encounters
Kim Van Es, Teacher Writer
June 30, 2020
A Teacher’s Encounters with Difference For teachers just like everyone else, there is a process to getting woke, especially when it comes to understanding the role of skin color in America. Clip 1: Growing up in a NW Iowa county that was 97% white, my perceptions of people of co...
Mr. K
Lauren Stephens, Teacher Writer
June 11, 2020
Mr. K The morning after your funeral, I walked past your classroom and stood in the doorway to take in how much of you filled every corner. Photos of your wife your infant daughter Cubs memorabilia Lambeau souvenirs fantasy brackets still pinned to a bulletin board ...
Meltdown in Aisle Three
Barb Edler, Teacher Writer
May 22, 2020
In Aisle Three At Hy-Vee I have a meltdown Shelves literally wiped clean No juice, no milk, no sardines There’s barely any meat Except where the butchers work I ask about an advertised sale on New York strips I thought they had They do, they’re just not marked I ask for four The bu...
Teacher Appreciation Week: I See You
Nikki Smith, Teacher Writer
May 9, 2020
I see you. I see you worrying about if your students' basic needs are met. I see you creating brand new lessons and resources overnight to help students understand the curriculum. I see you calling and emailing students and parents to make connections, check-in. I see you adapting to the ever-cha...
Lilies
Tracy Tensen, Teacher Writer
May 3, 2020
With a shake of the head she says neither of us should be there. Then we hear the world take a breath. We answer with one of our own. One of our potentially toxic breaths. And we accidentally touch our eyes and forget not to rub our noses. Should I have touched the handle of the cart? ...
The Late March Evening
Rex Muston, Teacher Writer
April 23, 2020
The Late March Evening The man he plays is pensive, regretting the grays of reflection in the bathroom mirror. The man he plays is penitent, moving slowly today, aching in joints from drink that made him wobble. The man he plays is charged, driven by Doug and L...
The Oasis
Brenna Griffin, Teacher Writer
April 16, 2020
“The desert is dry and hot,” the woman in the suit proclaims at the front of the library. It is my first year of teaching at Callanan Middle School. I am all wide eyes and optimism; plus, my self-selected mentor teacher has helped me set the expectation that I can always take away one good thing...
Donations
Teresa Lawler, Teacher Writer
March 24, 2020
Marie Kondo has people around the world cleaning out closets and emptying bookshelves. As part of the purging process, cleaners ask themselves, “Does this item bring me joy?” I learned nearly fifty years ago about the ramifications for the giver and receiver when an item fails to meet this standar...
A Glittering Pause
March 14, 2020
It was the first stretch of quiet I’d had all Winter Break. I was relishing the alone time upstairs. The baby was napping. The oldest two were playing with friends outside. And Milo was quiet. Too quiet. The kind of quiet that spells disaster. I wanted to savor the quiet, but I knew (as every parent does) t...
“Breaking Out” with House Arrest by K.A. Holt
Britt Jungck, Teacher Writer
February 29, 2020
Something beautiful happens when you feel backed into a corner...you have nowhere to go but out. This fall, three teachers at Bunger Middle School experienced this phenomena and decided to embrace its power, instead of wallow in the powerlessness that can often plague our profession. During a...
Standardized Is the Antithesis of Creative
JoAnn Gage, Teacher Writer
January 31, 2020
When I go out to eat at the Olive Garden, I know exactly what to expect. The menu and decor are standard and successful, and cooks there are able to follow a recipe to create the same dishes in every branch of the chain. But I wonder if Olive Garden cooks ever garner the inventive nature and deep under...
Common Sense Sunset
Rex Muston, Teacher Writer
January 13, 2020
My bright focused third hour pupils tell me a check marked box is a visual representation of resolution. Driving home I double take the sunset, pausing momentarily at high speed, caught in a whirlpool of January insight, resolved to the littlest things. My consc...
June 11, 2020
May 22, 2020
Teacher Appreciation Week: I See You
May 9, 2020
May 3, 2020
April 23, 2020
April 16, 2020