…With only days left until Americans determine the next leader of the free world, it is incumbent upon educators to have serious talks with the people in their communities to ensure they understand the importance of the Department of Education and what the country stands to lose in its absence. As we continue to hear […]
Shareefah Mason
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Gus Walz: A Joy inside and outside the classroom
In 2010, I worked at Boude Storey Middle School in the South Oak Cliff community, one of Dallas’s most impoverished areas. Like all other campuses, we had a special education classroom for our nonverbal students. A young lady named “Laci” was in that class. Every time I would pass her in the hallways, she would […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Dear FAFSA: I’m an accomplished educator and cannot navigate the new form
Dear Free Application for Student Aid (FAFSA), My name is Shareefah Mason. I am a Presidential Leadership Scholar who currently serves as the Director of Teacher Experience at a national non-profit that prepares prospective teachers. I worked as an Associate Dean of Educator Certification at the largest community college system in Texas. I taught in […]
Posted inBack to School
Corsicana ISD Assistant Principal attacked by student: Who will protect the educators?
Tears welled up in my eyes as I watched Corsicana ISD Assistant Principal Candra Rogers describe the horrific incident that occurred at the middle school she leads. Like many educators across the nation, she went to diffuse a situation with an irate student who had become dangerously enraged in a behavior classroom. As the assistant […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Good-Bye Biden: The impact on America’s educators
Joe Biden removing himself from the 2024 bid for the President of the United States will come with cheers and jeers. Some people will look at his decision’s global political implications. Others will look at the more intricate issues impacting everyday Americans with this political move. I look well beyond that as a former teacher […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
Jay-Z and Roc Nation: Let’s have the conversation about school vouchers
As I listen to one of my favorite songs by the prolific rap artist Jay-Z, I reminisce on how the words in the chorus will forever motivate me as a first-generation college student from New Orleans. “Some how, some way, we gotta make it up the hood, someday.” For nearly thirty years, Jay-Z has been […]
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
How the NBA’s Jaylen Brown’s Story… signifies the intentional demise of Black kids in America’s schools
“My teacher said she will look me up in the Cobb county jail in 5 years… Wow!” This was a quote published to Twitter, now X, in 2014. It was posted by a young Black man named Jaylen Brown, who graduated from Wheeler High School in Georgia. He grew up in a diverse community in […]
Posted inCOVID-19
Thank You…NEXT! Next School Year Has Got to be Better Than Last
According to Statista, 511,000 teachers left the profession in June 2023. These numbers are exponentially higher than the eight percent who left the field in the 2021-22 school year after the COVID-19 pandemic. While there are a slew of reasons teachers are leaving the field in droves, one resounding constant is that teachers don’t feel […]