As we embark on 2017, I’m reflecting on the notion that our role as educators (whether we are formal or informal teachers) to build reasoning and analytical skills, illuminate historical experiences, and strengthen empathy across perspectives feels more crucial than ever. With the upcoming Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday and Black History Month around the…
I’m thinking about the beauty of diverse bodies, especially those of young people who are coming to grips with their identities and differences, navigating their way through a world that isn’t always friendly and kind to them. Poetry helps bring beauty and light to these awkward terrains… Anodyne I love how it swells into a…
I haven’t updated my speaking calendar on this website in a while, but between getting snowed in with the record storm last weekend, and the sheer anticipation of meeting and learning from amazing people around the world over the next few weeks, I’m excited to share a few upcoming events. Some of my most fulfilling…
(For International Education Week, the online magazine Education Week’s Global Learning page (curated by the Asia Society) featured this piece I wrote, sharing some of the conundrum we face in global education.) At the recent Global Education Forum hosted by Asia Society and the Penn Graduate School of Education, I posed a question that’s been…
Waiting for my coffee to brew at dawn this morning I got an instant jolt scanning news on my phone when I saw the headline Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi Are Awarded Nobel Peace Prize. My heart did somersaults and my brain thought: OMYGOD. OMYGOD. OMYGOD. OMYGOD. I almost didn’t need the coffee anymore. This…
(I wrote this post for National Geographic Education’s blog in the spring. Thanks to all the readers who made this one of their most widely read articles ever! Here’s the link to the original piece, or read it below. Thanks for stopping by!) An ongoing communication with an enthusiastic social studies teacher in a large…
