When we provide students with opportunities to explore their outside environment in concert with their inner world, they are able to discover new life skills and hone existing ones in a context with fewer distractions and barriers.

This piece was originally published on April 21, 2021.

This piece was originally published on June 9, 2021.

This piece was originally published on April 28, 2021.

Each school, no matter how much concrete and asphalt surrounds it, has some patch of outdoor space that could be utilized by a creative, adventurous teacher.

This piece was originally published on November 19, 2019.

The songs of robins and red-winged blackbirds, the green shoots poking through the dirt, and certainly the later sunsets all help me to remember that this, too, shall pass, and that at some point I will be back in the classroom with my students.

This piece was originally published on April 15, 2020.

The bedrock underlying everything we do at school is, in a word, relationships. This remains true whether we are in the same room together or interacting exclusively through our screens.

This piece was originally published on August 17, 2020.

Face-to-face learning is demonstrably better for most students, but it’s also much less safe than remote learning. Remote learning is a safe alternative, but it’s inequitable, especially in rural school districts like mine. Parents need to work, and kids need to eat. Every answer brings more questions.

This piece was originally published on November 30, 2020.

Note: I’m participating in the 2020–21 Math Equity Project, and one of our first tasks was to introduce ourselves with a “Storientation” giving the rest of the cohort and idea of who we are as a person, teacher, and mathematician. This is mine. …