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"Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me." I was sitting outside on the playground bench wiping the tears of a child when this proverb came to mind. It isn’t true, of course. Nancy was a second-grader going through an evaluation process to help us understand why she couldn't read. Kayla was one of her classmates. As they were climbing the ladder of the slide, Kayla yelled out, "Nancy is retarded!" Ouch. Words can break our hearts.

Mention school desegregation, and most people envision the Little Rock Nine—not the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD). But Tucson is exactly where the battle for desegregation is being fought today.

I recently visited a friend’s preschool classroom. While there, I saw an argument that mirrored my high school students’ conflicts. I walked away curious about the way younger and older students use their words to explain their feelings and the actions of others.

During Ramadan, some Muslim students in this educator's school spent time in the media center during lunchtime, but most suffered in the cafeteria. She and her staff worked to change that.

I was excited by my lesson plan about the presidential elections. I planned to help students research issues and form opinions by guiding them through a variety of perspectives. Then my student teacher asked a question that surprised me. “Do you ever have parents complain about elections being discussed in school?” he wanted to know. “Why would they?” I asked.

“Privilege is choosing what we do not see” -Dorothy Soelles These words speak to my ongoing journey out of homophobia—a journey that began over a decade ago in Mississippi.

I recently served as a reader of scholarship applications. The process included a complex algorithm for inclusion and took several criteria into account, like GPA, test scores, native languages, income level, assets, essays, parental education level and ethnicity. While providing this service, I came face-to-face with a misconception about race and ethnicity: Appearance predicts what language people speak.

When school starts, highlight student excitement, not poverty.

Let’s use some time this summer to rejuvenate and reflect on our classroom practice!

Introverts are often pushed to be talkative and outgoing. Doing so devalues their identities.