According to thousands of you, here are the top ten posts 2015 with a few words from each post. This blog surpassed a million views since inception. Considering I’m doing this without any major sponsorship, publications, or well-regarded co-signs, I’m ecstatic about this and so much more. Without further adieu, here they are:

1. Opting Out Of Everything

“I wanted to listen to the whole commercial, but, instead I hurried up, paid for my groceries, and got the hell out. You guessed it: I opted out.”

1. We’re Wrong [Reflecting on Spring Valley High]

“If I’m the black male educator who’s seeing that and I don’t react, the first words out of my mouth ought to be ‘I was wrong, and I’m sorry.'”

1. I’m Not Racist, But My Kid’s Not Going There [On Segregation]

“The tale of two schools begins and ends with a white school and a black school, and, no matter if the schools are equal by any measure that our society deems credible, one will always be different from the other. Segregation.”

1. Where Have All The Teachers of Color Gone? [With Answers]

“When education reformers of present-day wanted to disrupt their education systems, they competed against each other in their shows of force by shutting down, breaking up, and privatizing schools with majority students of color.

Guess where teachers of color, not so coincidentally, tend to work?”

1. The Blackout (Why #BlackLivesMatter Owes Nothing To You)

“Just before I almost hit the comment button, I thought to myself, “What would this bring me besides more burning bridges?”

Then again, if the bridges are that flammable, then maybe they were going to burn regardless.”

1. The Crosshairs of Poverty and High Expectations

“Racism, classism, and sexism manifests not just in the structures that hinder our most troubled schools, but also in many individuals within the system itself, carrying their rather visible knapsacks into our schools and dropping their bag of rocks on our kids.”

1. New York City’s Fractured Relationship With Teachers of Color

“Whenever we raise the bar for supporting a subset of educators, we help all teachers. Not a trickle down, but a gushing up.”

1. The Investment (A Message To New Jersey Teachers)

“We can’t operate like police do. Our jobs are not about breaking down children. We can’t keep contributing to the school to prison pipeline.”

1. Get Up Offa That Thing (Summer-Shaming)

“Summer-shaming is a thing, and I’d rather not engage in it, because when someone calls me Jose in the middle of a week day, I don’t have to correct them until at least September.”

1. Raisins Exploding In The Sun

Which is odd because, when I asked her back in the fall why she was running for mayor, she said, “If you don’t see someone actually doing something, then you gotta step up, don’t you?” So I guess it’s on us now.

Some of my unranked faves that you may have missed:

11. How I Engage With New Teachers (Gems from the Dirt)

12. Of Challenge and Controversy (Why I Support Marylin Zuniga)

13. Pedro Noguera Leaves to LA and We’re The Remainder

14. Shut. It. Down. [On The Battles for Racial Equity and Public Education]

15. This Is What Has To Be Done [#WhyIWrite]

Thanks for making this one of the most well-read education blogs in America, and for doing the work of putting our students at the forefront of change. See you in 2016.

photo c/o