Articles and Spotlights

Member Spotlight: Ms. Sherena Thomas

posted yesterday
For Ms. Sherena Thomas , education is about far more than just helping students' complete assignments—it is about shaping their confidence and fostering a lifelong love for learning. As a current Learning Lab Assistant at Helena Park Elementary, Sherena balances her daily work in the classroom with her studies at Grand Canyon University. For her, joining Kappa Delta Pi has been a transformative ...

Member Spotlight: Dr. Melissa Webb Earnest

posted yesterday
Meet Dr. Melissa Webb Earnest , a KDP legacy member , CARE Action Team member, and dedicated educator who has been part of the KDP community for 31 years. Currently serving as an Adjunct Professor at the American College of Education, Dr. Webb Earnest shared her journey from a non-traditional student to a veteran educator, and why peer support matters now more than ever. Finding ...

Member Spotlight: Dr. Clarissa Gamble Booker

posted 15 days ago
Meet Dr. Clarissa Gamble Booker, a member of KDP’s esteemed Eleanor Roosevelt Chapter and recipient of The 2026 Dr. Thomas E. Musselman Award for Service Excellence . This award honors an individual whose sustained commitment to service has made a meaningful impact within KDP and the education profession. For Dr. Booker, that spirit of service is not just something she demonstrates—it ...

Member Spotlight: Ms. Vladine Roche

posted 15 days ago
For Ms. Vladine Roche , KDP has been a source of connection, encouragement, and professional growth. “My KDP family has allowed me to truly flourish in my classroom,” Vladine shared. “They provide purposeful professional development, collaboration, and educational resources.” As a seventh-grade teacher and member of the Alpha Epsilon Gamma Chapter at Grand Canyon University, ...

Turning Anxiety into Resilience: Practical Strategies for Educators

posted 15 days ago
Turning Anxiety into Resilience: Practical Strategies for Educators By : Kayla Sweet In recent years, anxiety among students has become an increasingly visible trend in schools. Conversations about mental health, mindfulness practices, and even designated mental health days are now common parts of educational discourse. Yet many educators continue to ...

Six Key Strategies for Building and Growing Your Professional Networks as Pre-Service Teachers

posted 28 days ago
Six Key Strategies for Building and Growing Your Professional Networks as Pre-Service Teachers By: Janet Solis Rodriguez, Carrie Mitchell, Priya V. Prasad, and Carey B. Walls W hen you have a question — about classroom management, lesson planning, or even where to apply for teaching jobs — who do you tend to turn to for advice? The social connections ...

Member Spotlight: Dr. Rick Breault

posted 29 days ago
Meet Dr. Rick Breault , Faculty Licensing Officer at Ashland University, KDP member of more than 32 years, KDP Eleanor Roosevelt Chapter member , and the 2026 Founders Day Awards recipient of the Dr. Truman L. Kelley Award for Scholarship Excellence . This honor recognizes his sustained, impactful scholarship within KDP and the broader education profession at local, national, and global ...

Member Spotlight: Ms. Kimmy Ma

posted 29 days ago
Meet KDP teacher member Ms. Kimmy Ma . A high school teacher with 15 years of classroom experience and a member of the Chi Epsilon Chapter at Molloy College. As a doctoral scholar in educational leadership, and a Global Justice Fellow at the Sustainability Institute, Ms. Ma bridges the gap between academic research and everyday classroom practice. A Framework for Belonging At the ...

Mind in Motion: A History of Cursive Writing and Its Resurgence in the School Curriculum

posted 05-19-2026
Title : Mind in Motion: A History of Cursive Writing and I ts Resurgence in the School Curriculum By : Theoni Soublis Think about when a student struggles to take notes, decode a word th ey knew orally , or recall new vocabulary . What if one instructional tool could support all three vital skills? Literacy and neuroscience ...

Five Tips for Developing Positive Math Identities…. For You and Your Students

posted 05-15-2026
Five Tips for Developing Positive Math Identities…. For You and Your Students By : Suzanne Abdelrahim , Margarita Jiménez-Silva, Rachel Restani , Tony Albano, & Robin Martin During a third-grade math lesson on multi-digit subtraction, Ms. Brewer shows the class a word problem she has written on the board. She asks a student to read the problem ...

Igniting Innovation in the STEAM Classroom

posted 05-12-2026
Igniting Innovation in the STEAM C lassroom By Katherine Horlock and Cindy Melton STEAM is the integration of S cience, T echnology, E ngineering, A rt, and M athematics , and has potential to ignite innovation , spark curiosity, and instill a joy for learning in classrooms by allowing students to take ownership over learning. ...

Research-Driven Positive Psychology as a Tool in Social-Emotional Learning

posted 05-08-2026
Research-Driven Positive Psychology as a Tool in Social-Emotional Learning By Robert G. Hendrickson The need for optimism and resilience among adults is clear, and it crosses cultures and boundaries. Depression is widespread in the developed world. While a substantial amount of literature has been released within the “self-help” genre, very little research has examined the ...

Member Spotlight: Dr. Darlene Hester-Slade

posted 05-07-2026
For Dr. Darlene Hester-Slade, a teacher in Richmond Public Schools, education is about helping students see what is possible within themselves. “I teach to turn potential into power,” Dr. Hester-Slade shared. “Too many students face the world without a support system, and I am committed to being the mentor who changes that.” Through her work in the classroom, she uses her knowledge, ...

Member Spotlight: Mary Brower

posted 05-07-2026
Ms. Mary Brower , a teacher at Magnet Academy of Cultural Arts, brings curiosity, connection, and a love of history into her classroom every day. Her own “nerdiness” for history fuels her enthusiasm and helps make learning engaging and meaningful for her students. Mary Brower came to KDP not through a college chapter, but through a conversation. KDP member Khalil Roy introduced her to the organization, ...

Reimagining Classroom Conversations: Using Padlet to Engage K–2 Learners, Including Students with Special Needs

posted 05-05-2026
Reimagining Classroom Conversations: Using Padlet to Engage K–2 Learners, Including Students with Special Needs By Melissa Wesney Introduction Young learners in kindergarten through second grade thrive in environments that are interactive, visual, and emotionally engaging. As digital tools become more integrated into early childhood education, teachers face the challenge ...

Make Way for Reading Skills: Are Your Students’ Reading Ducks in a Row?

posted 04-28-2026
Make Way for Reading Skills : Are Y our S tudents’ R eading D ucks in a R ow? By Robin Quick Have you ever seen a mama duck and ducklings walking along a creek? They stay in a line moving steadily forward , each duck following closely behind the next. But if one duck slows down or stops, the entire line is affected: the others must ...

Member Spotlight: Mrs. Janna Kirby

posted 04-23-2026
Meet Janna Kirby , an elementary teacher with Bauxite School District in Bauxite, Arkansas, and a member of the Alpha Alpha Sigma Chapter at University of the Ozarks. Since first joining KDP in 2007, Janna has remained committed throughout her career. This year, she celebrates another milestone as she earns her master’s degree from Henderson State University in Educational Leadership. ...

Member Spotlight: Dr. Lucijan Jović

posted 04-23-2026
Meet Dr. Lucijan Jović, an educator, researcher, and KDP United Nations Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Representative who is committed to advancing equitable education for all learners. In the classroom, he teaches 8th-grade English and Writing, along with high school students in grades 9–12 with limited English proficiency, helping them build language skills, confidence, and academic ...

Mother’s Day Is Coming. Here’s How to Make It Work for Every Student.

posted 04-22-2026
You’re planning a fun Mother’s Day activity. You’ve got the materials ready. What you might not know is that for at least one student in your class, this week is really hard. A student’s mother might have died. She might live in another state, be deployed, or be incarcerated. Her whereabouts may not even be known to her child. These aren’t rare situations. They show up in classrooms every year, often ...

Pariendo Chistes: ¡¿Who Knew Homophones Could Be So Funny?!

posted 04-14-2026
Pariendo Chistes : ¡¿ Who Kn ew Homophones Could Be So Funny?! By Mitch D. Ingram “ Se nos nació ” as we say in Spanish. It was just born, naturally , out of the activity that we were doing about homophones in class. One of my favorite go-to assignments every spring as a bilingual elementary teacher for ...