When I first decided to become a teacher, I didn't think about being part of a union. It wasn't the reason that I became a teacher. I became a teacher because I wanted to help the community by providing an excellent education to the kids that I would be serving....

A hard-to-staff district is what they used to call the district that I work in. This, of course, was before the abundance of teachers that can now be found in California and in states across the nation. But even in this time of abundance, we still have a difficult time...

Ask any teacher about the principals they have respected over the years. Many would probably tell you that a respected and effective principal is one who looks at the reality of their school site and doesn't automatically blame the staff for the many ills that may plague that school. Instead...

One of my most cherished memories was when I realized I could read. I remember sitting on the couch in our living room with a book in my lap. I remember sounding out the word, "know" as "ka-now." My mom was listening to me read out loud and asked me...

Recently, I received the following note from a former student, "[y]ou were a great teacher. I thought you were hard. And I didn't really like you. But over time I realized you were challenging us. And I respected you."

This is significant to me for a couple of reasons....

When I began teaching, there were a couple of things that struck me as being unique to education. The first was the expectation that supplies that those in the corporate world take for granted would need to be provided by me. The second is that my immediate supervisor, my boss,...

Moments ago, I finished watching Race to Nowhere, a movie that was recently shown in Vallejo, the district where I teach. The movie struck a chord as I noted the many similarities shown in the movie and the struggles my three children faced in their educational journeys.

My...

Have you heard about the new film that was made by the same guy that made An Inconvenient Truth? This film was recently discussed on Oprah Winfrey. I haven't had the opportunity to watch Oprah or the movie, but I have got to tell you, the whole Superman metaphor really...