Last night, my fiancee and I watched El Cantante, a first-person retelling of legendary salsa star Hector Lavoe’s life of music, drugs, and suicide through the eyes of his wife Nilda “Puchi” Perez. For anyone who caught the movie and knew anything abou...

A few weeks ago, my good friend John Holland and I were discussing some really good conversation ranging from music to education. Every time we have a conversation, whether it’s by ourselves or in a group context, the back-and-forth reminds me of a never-ending la...

Today, I felt compelled to break down some skills around adding like terms because kids were still a little confused between 3x and x^3. Many adults profess this, too. Yet, anyone who does understand this tend to roll their eyes at those who don’t. For that matter...

Last night, and over the last few weekends, I’d been working on a piece (of poetry) for my students, one that I hope they’d remember, that would capture the memories we had for so long. I couldn’t come up with anything appropriate until last night. I c...

First, if I haven’t thanked each and every one of you for your feedback to the blog, let me thank you once more. It’s been a tough couple of weeks personally, and even when the New Yorker in me tells me otherwise, I appreciate the random kindness and words o...

Another day, another list of edubloggers I may or may not have made it on. This conversation trickled down via Teacher Magazine, then the Teacher Leaders Network, and it has some people up in arms about why some of the same bloggers get chosen for these and they exclude...

Today, I had the pleasure of attending the 1st prep meeting for a conference I’ll be attending this summer in Orlando, where we’ll be bathing in the sun next to a bevy of beauties and margaritas learning about teaching and learning from the likes of Jon Saph...

A suggestion on building your own independence in the new decade, but first, a few notes: If you didn’t catch my interview in American Latino TV, check it out. Discussions about Latinos and education ensue. [American Latino] Jeff Pearlman threw me this interview w...

I’m not going to quit being an educator. Even when people want me to quit, even when the gossip comes raining down, even when the whole world tries to tell me that education is not particularly valuable in the American hierarchy of occupations, I know I cannot qui...

Everytime I come across December 1st, I think about the millions of people across the world who have constant reminders of their impending doom, and that no matter what they do or how well they keep themselves in shape, their impending mortality becomes not only more ce...