6 Words of Wisdom From Teachers for Teachers (Opinion)
Today’s post is the latest installment in a multiyear series in which educators offer advice—in six words or less—about teaching to other educators. Some share more than one set of those pearls of wisdom:
Denita Harris, Ph.D., is the assistant superintendent for diversity, equity, and inclusion for the Wayne Township metro school district in Indianapolis:
Teaching is a marathon; practice breathing.
Erica Silva, Ed.D., leads professional development with schools and districts across the country to advance educational equity:
Show compassion to yourself and others.
Malkia Williams is a district multilingual coach in the Aldine Independent school district in Texas:
Acknowledge first, respect second, connect always.
Jenny Vo is the Greater Houston-area English-learner director for the International Leadership of Texas Charter Schools:
No child is a blank slate.
Valerie King is the author of Make it Relevant: Strategies to Nurture, Develop and Inspire Young Learners:
Prioritize inquiry, minimize grading, maximize inspiration.
Marina Rodriguez is a 6th grade dual-language arts teacher at a school in College Station, Texas:
Hold onto hope for each student.
Begin each day with clean slates.
Know them before you teach them.
Jason D. DeHart is a high school English teacher and has recently published the book Building Critical Literacy and Empathy with Graphic Novels with the National Council of Teachers of English:
Being great at teaching requires authenticity.
Sarah Nichols is a national-board-certified teacher and Utah Teacher Fellow in Salt Lake City:
Leave the work at work; rest.
Build relationships and even better boundaries.
Don’t speak until they are listening.
Kwame Sarfo-Mensah is a 17-year veteran educator and the founder and CEO of Identity Talk Consulting, LLC, an independent educational consulting firm:
Growth can’t happen without critical reflection.
Ryan Huels is an elementary school principal in Oregon, Ill.:
The Best PD is next door!
Mike Kaechele is a middle school teacher and project-based-learning/social-emotional-learning consultant:
Less of us, more of them.
Consider contributing a question to be answered in a future post. You can send one to me at lferlazzo@educationweek.org. When you send it in, let me know if I can use your real name if it’s selected or if you’d prefer remaining anonymous and have a pseudonym in mind.
You can also contact me on X at @Larryferlazzo or on Bluesky at @larryferlazzo.bsky.social .
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