By Swetha Narasimhan—Knowles Senior Fellow—and Ayanna Perry, Associate Director, Teaching Fellows Program Originally published by the Knowles Teacher Initiative At Knowles, we invite teachers to research the relationships between the tasks they choose, the talk that students are able to engage with as a result of those tasks, and the…

By Carolyn Ross—Program Officer, Teacher Development Originally published by the Knowles Teacher Initiative “all that you touch, you change/all that you change, changes you” – Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower In March of 2019, with an awful case of mastitis and a three-week old baby waiting outside, I finally…

By Zenas Lee—Knowles Senior Fellow Originally published by the Knowles Teacher Initiative During the 2016 Knowles Teacher Initiative Summer Meeting and much of the prior school year, I was consumed with the question of how to change a system. At that time, I was trying to establish an advisory program…

By Samantha O’Connor—Knowles Teaching Fellow Originally published by the Knowles Teacher Initiative It is nearly impossible to spend time in the Knowles Teaching Fellows Program and not become involved with the notion of inquiry as a foundational component of one’s teaching practice. Practitioner Inquiry as described by Cochran-Smith and Lytle…

By Jessica Watts— Knowles Senior Fellow and Program Officer Originally published by the Knowles Teacher Initiative Part 1: The Conditions of Allyship I began to write what, at first, seemed a simple, bright-and-shiny story illustrating how I utilized leverage, specifically money from a Knowles seed grant — a grant that…

By Sara Valdez—Knowles Teaching Fellow—and Rosiane Lesperance—Knowles Program Officer, Teacher Development Originally published by the Knowles Teacher Initiative Part of the mission of the Knowles Teacher Initiative is to improve education for all students in the United States. One way that we approach this goal is by supporting teachers in…

Written by Rohan Prakash Adjusting my expectations and understanding of what counts as success. It was a rainy, cold fall weekend where I sat alone in my room and just cried. Then another weekend when I called up my best friend late at night and vented about everything. And then…

In his 17th year in the classroom, a teacher learns a new lesson from his students about what makes a successful science course. “He said, ‘Mr. Buehler, I hear what you’re saying, but it makes absolutely no sense, and I think you’re wrong.’ Right then, I knew it was going to be a very, very good year.” What makes for entertaining teaching isn’t always the best teaching. In this talk, given at the Knowles Teacher Initiative’s 20th Anniversary Gala, Ben Buehler reflects on how…

I’ve taught for five years, experiencing . . . Three states, three schools, three subjects, three levels Urban and suburban contexts Homogenous and diverse student bodies and staffs Laughing with colleagues Crying with students Mourning students and colleagues Wanting to quit Being more energized about teaching than I can put into words…