Set against  months of messaging that schools are failing, (despite much evidence that New York schools fare very well against those in other states) comes five days to appreciate teachers. Here’s an interesting blog post about Teacher Appreciation Week that gives a little bit on the history and how the effort began with a little [...]

Sometimes you just have to toot your own horn. Especially to send up some music against the constant drumbeat of those wishing to downgrade public education.

Jeff Peneston, New York state’s 2011 teacher of the year and a member of the United Liverpool Faculty Association, will be recognized as one of the top educators in the nation at the NEA Foundation’s Salute to Excellence in Education Gala later this week in Washington, DC. Peneston, a ninth grade science teacher at Liverpool [...]

StoryCorps has undertaken a national campaign to send a message of gratitude to teachers from coast to coast. Here’s a link to their page. New York state is already orange (that should make all you  Syracuse fans happy) but there’s a lot of other Northeast and mid-Atlantic states that are not!  Anybody have a message [...]

It’s now seven days until NASA launches the new Mars Science Laboratory, Curiosity (Yes, that means Nov. 25 when I for one will be in post-turkey and pumpkin pie coma.) Here’s a short clip about the Curiosity rover, including views of what the scientists expect Mars will look like. Remember earth science teacher Jean Pounder gets to meet [...]

Education International sponsors recognition of Oct. 5 as World Teachers Day. Here’s their site where you can send an e-card to thank teachers for what they do, share photos and also find out more about this year’s theme of gender equality. Since it is a worldwide day, here’s a few links to some of the [...]

NOTE from Betsy Sandberg: I don’t know if you’ve had the time to check out the It’s What We Do website yet. Have you had the time to submit something yourself? I received the above from “the other Betsy” over the summer. Back then, there was a 300-word space limit. That’s the good thing about this [...]

If you have never tried shopping Penzeys Spices, you need to give it a try. Why? Because this business saw what was happening to teachers in the state of Wisconsin and did something about it. If you don’t have time to go to the link, it’s that on Sept. 1, members of the Milwaukee teachers [...]

Thanks to the Saranac Lake TA for pointing out this editorial in the Plattsburgh Press-Republican.

Angie Miller, selected as the nation’s top teacher recently, speaks her mind. Here’s a link to Valerie Strauss’ full reporting, and here’s an excerpt: Angie Miller, a language arts teacher at Holderness Central School, was the last teacher to address the panel. Her topic was parent involvement (she started by saying that it was appropriate [...]