Over the years, our ELL students have eagerly shared stories about an important festival that falls over spring break: Nowruz, the Persian New Year.

This past year, in a small Midwest community, we lost a student to a drug overdose. We have lost many more to drug addiction, and although we haven’t attended their funerals, they are no longer the students we once knew, while some are unrecognizable.

I search, “Talking to children about racialized violence.” I know experts say children are never too young to talk about race, but none of them have a lesson plan for me.

The trick to not using all your personal days during the first month of school is to focus on stopping bad behavior before it starts, instead of punishing students after the fact.

The teacher candidates in our Bachelor of Education program were about to embark not only on a professional journey, but also an actual journey, to teach abroad.

I avidly recall a second grade class that would excitedly huddle around my rocking chair for story time. Students scrambled around sliding chairs to the carpet where I read heartwarming and sometimes zany tales, they reminded me that story time was counted among the most meaningful and cherished moments of a child’s day. Story time is a child’s portal into endless worlds, kingdoms, and dimensions.

“I went into teaching so that I could help children perform well on standardized testing,” said no teacher, ever.

A wink to our school’s husky mascot, PAWS Time is a highly engaging, weekly enrichment program that allows our students to “pause”: Practice kindness, Always be safe, make Wise choices, and Show respect.

After 17 years of mostly reflection-free teaching, I’ve finally found the perfect space to force myself to stop, step back, and think about what I’m teaching. That place is Substack.