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Bouncing Forward in Tough Times: Strategies of Resilient Teachers During the Pandemic

By Phil Kitchel posted 11-09-2023
By Sharon McDonough and Narelle Lemon Dr. McDonough is a researcher in teacher education with advanced disciplinary knowledge of sociocultural theories of teacher emotion, resilience, and wellbeing. Sharon brings ...

The Teacher Advocate Convo Special

By Phil Kitchel posted 10-31-2023
KDP Convo 2023 starts Thursday! If you’re joining us in St. Louis this week, we can’t wait to see you, but even if you can’t be there, you can still review our list of great Speakers , follow along on the Schedule of Events ...

Words, Comments, and Perceptions Matter: Teachers’ Reactions to Misaligned Portrayals in the Media and Public

By Phil Kitchel posted 10-02-2023
By Erin Nerlino Erin wrote the article “From Heroes to Scapegoats: Teacher Perceptions of the Media and Public’s Portrayal of Teachers during COVID-10” in the latest quarterly issue of The Educational Forum. The article ...

7 Tips (and Lots of Links) for Organizing Your Classroom and Staying Sane

By Phil Kitchel posted 09-12-2023
By Joyce Wilson Teaching is a challenging profession, especially if you’re a new teacher. Fortunately, you can implement strategies to stay organized, focused, and effective in your teaching career. I’m going to share ...

The Teacher Advocate Back-to-School Special

By Phil Kitchel posted 09-05-2023
The Teacher Advocate has more than 100 searchable articles on everyday topics that will always be relevant to new and returning teachers. Here are some examples of our best to give you a hand, whether you’re new to the ...

Summer Memoir: Teaching “As It Is and How [We Think] It Ought to Be”

By Phil Kitchel posted 09-04-2023
By Carl Grant and Alexandra Allweisss In our article, “ 'Going for Broke': Working with Teacher Candidates to Bring about Intersectional Socially Just Teaching,” in the current issue of The Educational Forum (available ...

Why Do We Need Hip-Hop Pedagogy in Teacher Education Now?

By Phil Kitchel posted 08-07-2023
By Lin Wu The author wrote the article “Enacting Hip-Hop Pedagogy for Joy and Justice” in Volume 87, Issue 3 of KDP’s The Educational Forum . It is available free in the month of August. Six years after President ...

The Resistances Possible When School Subject Areas Talk to Each Other

By Phil Kitchel posted 07-20-2023
By Kyle L. Chong and Sheila M. Orr The authors collaborated on the article “Toward an Antiracist Pedagogy of Humanizing Co-creatorship in Teacher Education,” in Volume 87, Issue 3, of KDP’s The Educational Forum . It ...

Building Persistence Through Struggle

By Phil Kitchel posted 06-12-2023
By Zareen Gul Aga (Rahman) The author wrote “Pre-service Mathematics Teachers’ Experience with Productive Struggle,” which is published in Volume 87, Issue 2 of the KDP Forum. It is available free in the month of June. ...

Stand Out as a Leader, Even If You Don’t Think You Are One—Yet!

By Phil Kitchel posted 06-06-2023
By Jacek Polubiec Most of us agree that the idea that leaders just lead, teachers just teach, and students just learn is a thing of the past. Innovative schools have been blurring these traditional boundaries for years, ...

Turning Chaos into Opportunity

By Phil Kitchel posted 06-05-2023
By Michael G. Ryan Michael Ryan and co-authors Megan Cziraky , Kristen Kain , Helena McKendrick , and Meredith Miller published the article “ Learning, Growing, Embracing, Transitioning, and Changing: Exploring ...

3 Keys to Safe and Connected Classrooms

By Phil Kitchel posted 05-23-2023
By Kyle W. Lickel “Explosions.” That’s what popped in my head as I pondered the question: “What is going to get students to actually want to attend class and be engaged?” If I could put together an entire ...

Great Classroom Management + High Teacher Confidence = An Effective New Teacher

By Phil Kitchel posted 05-02-2023
By Grace Kibe Novice teachers aspire to have a great classroom, with students who are well behaved and academically successful. They strive to practice student-centered and culturally responsive ...

ELLs 101: Debunking 5 Myths About ELLs, and Simple Practices to Reach Them

By Phil Kitchel posted 04-25-2023
By Lisa Brizendine It is December in Tara’s first grade classroom, and 6 out of 18 students are English learners (ELLs). Tara reads aloud the story “Too Many Tamales.” Tara would stop at certain times in the story and ...

School-Shooting Drills: Yes, No?

By Phil Kitchel posted 04-19-2023
By Carleton H. Brown Carleton Brown and co-author David DeMatthews published the article “There’s a Shooting at the Middle School” in Volume 87, Number 2, of KDP’s Educational Forum . The article is available free ...

Why “Print Culture” and “Emergent Literacy” Are Important to Literacy Development

By Phil Kitchel posted 04-18-2023
By Jennifer Martin “A World Without Print”: This phrase is the title of a chapter from Victoria Purcell-Gates’ text, Other People’s Words: The Cycle of Low Literacy . In this text, Purcell-Gates details the literacy ...

Collaborative Discourse: A Stepping-Stone in Creating a Sustainable World

By Phil Kitchel posted 04-13-2023
By Lucijan Jović Society is made up of individuals from all walks of life. It is filled with multiple cultures, varied opinions, different backgrounds; however, speaking English is one thing most of us have in common. ...

Classroom Library 101

By Phil Kitchel posted 04-04-2023
By Julie Hoffman The classroom library is a fundamental component of the literacy-rich environment we want children to access at school. In essence, if we want our students to become readers, to identify as readers, ...

Activate Students’ Minds with Active Reading

By Phil Kitchel posted 03-28-2023
By Brian Williams, Rebecca Kavel, and Kyle Graham “I don’t understand! My students can read well, but they struggle to make sense of the text. As a result, student engagement dwindles, text discussions are like pulling ...

3 Subtle Classroom Management Strategies That Can Have a Big Impact

By Phil Kitchel posted 03-07-2023
By Amie Weinberg Let’s begin with an important, common question that new teachers typically ask: “What’s the difference between classroom discipline and classroom management?” Discipline refers to a reactive, problem-driven ...