Last September, I set a goal for myself: to find a game for every standard I teach. In other words, to gamify the entire school year. While 6th graders can’t vote—and they often feel that participating in civic life is something only their parents can do—games put them in the

My main drive as an educator is to teach literacy as a way of understanding the world. My focus is not just reading and writing, but building literacy in how students navigate the internet, politics, and the world around them. It’s about vetting sources, understanding if what you’re reading is

A few years ago, one of my colleagues invited Mary Beth Tinker to speak at our school—she was the student plaintiff in the landmark case Tinker v. Des Moines. It was an incredible experience to hear her calmly describe what it was like to participate in the case, recounting each