Why Teaching Research Writing Is More Important Than Ever

As Harlan Ellison said: “You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. Everything else is just hot air and farts in the wind.”

The Plight of a Red State Teacher

I have watched the direction in which our GOP dominated legislature and governor are leading the state regarding education and I am feeling rather hopeless. It’s not just in my state, but public education is in trouble in every red state in the union.

6 Ways Schools Are Failing Your Kids

I’ve been teaching now for over 20 years. I teach with love and rigor, have had a lot of success with helping students achieve greatness, but am often frustrated with the things that schools think are so important about education. In my experience, these are the things for which most schools are serious: Testing –

School Started, So…

It’s been a busy month.  I haven’t posted in nearly three weeks, and that is really a record for me.  I usually post something about writing or at least something about my writing journey every week. I’ve been slacking. Actually, I’ve been insanely busy.  I’m in the middle of working on the third book in

Being An Indie Novelist is Tough, But Rewarding

It’s time to rant. I haven’t had serious time to work on the second book in my science-fiction series because I have been swamped with the day job, and swamped with my side jobs. I’m a high school English teacher by trade, and at the start of the year I had things under control.  However,

AP Teachers: Why You Should Be An AP Reader

I sit in the hotel lobby of the Westin Crown Center, a hotel in downtown Kansas City, waiting for my roommate to arrive in the lobby so we can see each other off.  Larry will board a flight for Chicago where he teaches in a private school and I’ll go back home to teach in

Oklahoma Education Rally: Were We Heard?

Yesterday I attended what is becoming an annual event in my state: the Oklahoma Education Rally.  I made several signs, but in the end I didn’t take them, choosing to go with my friend Michael Dean (featured on this week’s podcast) as he talked to our representatives, and then live tweet the entire experience.  I didn’t

A Whopping 5 Copies!

I looked at my sales report for the month of April, and discovered that I had actually sold 5 print editions of my two new novels combined. One could become very depressed about that, spiraling down into a pit of deep despair until Prince Humperdink sets the “machine” to 50 out of rage. Yet I

Short Film Illustrates Oklahoma Educator’s Plight

A friend of mine brought the following short film to my attention.  It is called “The Expert”, and is representative of what teachers in the state of Oklahoma are faced with each day.  If one sees the two women in the film as our legislature, the man at the head of the table as our

Oklahoma State Educators Rally at the Capital

Today was historic, at least I hope it was.  If it was not, then next time we will get 50,000 educators, parents and administrators to rally at the capital.  Let’s hope they listened to us. As I write this, Oklahoma is 48th in the nation in average pupil funding, 49th in teacher pay.  We are