Among the obvious, it just fits the moment right now so perfectly. How many of us are having a Hollywood, Ending? How many of us wish for a Hollywood Ending, riding into the sunset, happily ever after, Andy Warhol Campbell soup in hand?

These are just some of the questions that John Green asks as he presents to us his brilliant new novel, Hollywood, Ending.

Recently, I got the opportunity to participate in his book launch at Birmingham’s Alabama Theater, and it was phenomenal!

The historic theater, the group of people, a signed copy of the book in your hand, next, Green took us through a book reading, acting, discussion with his wife, and then mocked Q&A with audience as the hopefully always free press.

And overall, it just really was a lovely message. The brilliant, mentally ill, John Green, albeit OCD, but still nonetheless a representative for many of us who are “mentally ill,” and his book about a couple launching the movie, Andy Warhol Never Gets Old, in a culture who might become mentally ill trying to avoid getting old. In a city that Green grew up in, in a historical theater, surrounded by his high school alums, and all the fan girls alike, Green presented a book and an answer to many of our deepest fears, “Will we be ok?”

And what a satisfying answer, we will!

“Not in the short run, not in the long run, but maybe in the middle,” a response Green referenced from his teacher regarding being bullied, which he next stated was the first time a teacher was not completely bullshitting me.

And damn, if I just didn’t second guess myself. I am a teacher and I do every day try to present a hopeful agenda of what I think will best serve, challenge and inspire students; but man, is it somewhat bullshit? What can I actually guarantee about the world to come?

Either way, Green’s talk definitely got me to self-check myself, and also challenged me to read a fantastic book, Hollywood, Ending, and even so, it made me embark on an artistic journey, my Endangered Animal Book Series, meet Ziwa, Rusty, Bumba, Dart, Whalen, and Mona.

Because authentically expressing yourself, especially in an age of AI, isn’t this really what this life is about? Perhaps this is our next, endangered species.

Recently I have been researching (and living) what it means to become an academic mother.

By writing a duo ethnography with a colleague who has also just begun her journey as both a mother and an academic, as well as watching a recent documentary, No Country for Mothers, I will have to say there is so much to learn (and do)!

No Country for Mothers was directed by Raeshem Nijhon which started a movement called the Motherhood tour with a nonprofit called, Mom’s First. Topics covered included a wide variety which encapsulate “the mommy wars” : working moms vs. stay at home, vs. work from home, stay at home, daycare vs. nanny, girl boss vs. trad wife, butter vs. almond moms, right vs. left influences, the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), Nixon, Reagan, and much more. Overall, a theme from all these divisions, was that much of our pop culture and social media influences pit women, specifically moms against each other. We need to stop this!

One key moment for me was when a mom stated something to the effect that any winner in a culture war makes a loser to another culture, and no mom actually wants that. However, with the pressure and judgement from so many, it is natural for strong opinions, which the movie makes abundantly clear. The movie also showed some personal profiles of various mothers and how they approach their daily lives, along with Nijhon herself, at home with her kids. Much of my research leads me to one conclusion, we need more of all of this! And we need to talk about it much more…

Why is it so unusual for this side of motherhood to be shown by people in their professional lives, it is just as much a part of their lives, and just as much a part of our shared experiences. Whether or not you have kids, you have parents and they experienced these controversies just as much.

Some more intriguing questions brought up by post discussions which I think are really interesting…

How do we move beyond the culture wars surrounding motherhood and move forward together?

What does a good mother look like? Who taught us that?

How much of what we believe about motherhood is actually ours? And how much did we inherit?

Why do we keep returning to the working mom vs. stay-at-home mom debate?

Who benefits when mothers are busy debating one another instead of asking for better support for all families?

The last question seems to be the most profound… who benefits when we are busy debating all this? Companies, who make us think we need their product to be a better mother? Men, who in 2020, made gains in their work, while women lost their jobs by an almost 25% difference. Politicians, who need us divided in order to gain a majority to win?

As with most things in life, ultimately you have to decide for yourself. Two initiatives I think many of us can get behind are what the movie culminated with, paid leave and affordable childcare. Moms First is on the frontlines in advocating for these with many ways to get involved.

Some resources I have found helpful throughout this debate…

Academic Mothering Fabulating Futures for Higher Education by Kelly W. Guyotte, Stephanie Anne Shelton, Shelly Melchior, Carlson H. Coogler

Parent Data by Emily Oster — the more you find out about many of these debates, the more you realize most of it is not supported by or even well-researched at all.

Bhm Born — I don’t know where I would be without their classes and support of doulas in Birmingham.

And lookout for our article soon, Scholars and Mothers: A Phenomenological Duoethnography of Early-Career Mothers in Academia!

I met one of my teacher heroes this week, Erin Gruwell of the Freedom Writers Foundation at Alabama Holocaust Education Center’s Conference on Teaching the Holocaust: Standards, Strategies, Stories!

One reason to be proud of Alabama is that we recently passed a requirement for teachers to teach the Holocaust through an updated Social Studies course of study.

I can still remember taking my first class from Zuni, New Mexico, to see her movie. We traveled 45 minutes just to watch it in the theater. I can still remember their faces in response to many of the lessons taught by the freedom writers.

At our conference, she did a lesson using a metaphor of a suitcase, first thinking about during the Holocaust, many people had to pack everything they owned into one suitcase and then face the atrocities that they did.

Further, she had us map out what our students carry around on the inside and outside while thinking of your #1 and #2 most difficult students. Then magically as I left the session, there was one of my most challenging students, working at Birmingham Civic Center. And luckily, I was able to snag Erin to meet him.

In our current environment, it can be hard to stay positive, but the main takeaway from this conference was Erin’s spirit of almost toxic positivity, or constant positivity. What some criticize her for, she called always upping the ante.

Regardless, it is a positivity that makes amazing things happen for students, which is what truly matters. This was also a great reminder that you never know what someone is going through, so we should always be kind.

First, shout out to all the mothers, teachers, and everything in between. It truly takes a village to raise a child, and it takes a community to nurture both.

As a new mother, and a teacher for some time, I have a unique as well as shifting perspective on both of these roles. Aside from the negatives, there’s so much to appreciate about moms and teachers.

Ofcourse, as a teacher, I can tell you a million things to appreciate about being a teacher. I still remember my favorite teacher with a similar type of awe and candor as my mother. We all have “the one teacher” who was like this. Most of us teachers, were inspired to become a teacher because of this “one.”

The other great thing about being a teacher is along with teaching content you purportedly love and aim to convince students to atleast complete, along with loving it, you are a constant encourager along the way. The trait of being an encourager are the types of people we all need.

As many people say, teaching is a work of heart. It’s different every day, and every day you cast a spider’s web of what you hope will catch and inspire students. It inevitably gets knocked down everyday, but it might be the only profession where that’s not the ultimate fail or success. What matters is, are the students succeeding? Are they learning? Do they feel supported, encouraged, and inspired? If so, that’s a win. Same with being a parent.

Teaching is also the only profession, where every day, you can try again. No child is perfect, and neither are parents or teachers. And neither is my lesson plan.

A few other great things about being a teacher, in honor of teacher appreciation week…

You will never be poor, but you also probably won’t ever be rich.

You will always have a job.

You can always make a difference wherever you are.

You will stay young.

You will be near to the people who are struggling to grow up, but who also are young enough not to be jaded.

Similar to being a mom, what I appreciate about my students is often the same as how I see my son. Everyday, no matter how tired I am, he wakes up with enthusiasm, wonder, and resilience. I am in awe about how much he grows and learns each day.

I wish we could all hold on to this energy thoughout life and in every profession. The world would be a better place for it. The same goes if everyone was a teacher, even for a little while.

Last but not least, a quick shout out to @kaylinwrites who brings it all together in her poem, “My daughter wants to be a teacher…”

In today’s world, I can’t imagine a more important lesson for us all, “how to speak kindly, how to disagree, how to include, how to be human…”

Recently, I’ve been researching another area of education that I don’t think is well-explored: educator wellness.

One resource I have found helpful is following a challenge from Chaunta McCollins, M.Ed., for an educator reset, which includes guided journal prompts. It is extremely powerful when both educators and leaders journal together in this way. It is also so needed in the current moment in education.

Here are some of my reflections based on these questions.

Day 1: What feels most present right now: fatigue, clarity, or both?

I thought through this and wavered a bit, but I think it’s mostly fatigue, as it’s the middle of the year. Not only physical fatigue, but mental fatigue. The amount that educators process and give to others in a given day is exhausting emotionally. I am not complaining; we chose it, but it is still exhausting. Teachers need to find outlets and resources that help them reset and create a healthy wellness plan for themselves as well as their families.

I did not choose clarity because, although I waver at this time of year, I don’t usually lack clarity on what I need to do. Clarity might be lacking due to fatigue, so I think that’s most present for me.

Suggestions that help me with fatigue, though, are first, take care of yourself, stay healthy, fed, caffeinated, vitaminized, exercised, meditated, etc. It’s just as important for you to be available for your students as it is to take the time to take care of yourself. It’s next to impossible to take care of someone else effectively if you aren’t taking care of yourself. Emotionally, I try to prioritize setting aside a little time to myself in the morning or the evening for reading, writing, or something else I know that fills my heart. For me, this can also include time with family or friends, learning a new hobby, or trying a new recipe or restaurant. This is again just as important as communicating with parents, responding to emails, lesson plans, grading, etc.

Day 2: Where do you see stress showing up most in your organization — people, processes, or expectations?

Expectations, I think stress can make us lower our expectations and accept what we can manage instead of demanding better. The same thing goes for classroom expectations; if we do not first prioritize and voice expectations, stress can distract us from the best vision of what might be, both in the classroom and within the school community.

Day 3: What early signals of disengagement or misalignment are often overlooked?

I am not sure about this, because I think disengagement is obvious: lack of participation, lack of being present, or lack of follow-through. Misalignment is not always so obvious, and sometimes disengagement is caused by misalignment of vision or expectations.

Day 4: Which personal values feel hardest to protect- by design or by default?

I don’t feel like personal values are hard to protect within a school community. Most school communities value people and learning from each other, so even if a value is disagreed with, we should protect the right for it to be heard and visible. In most school environments, strong opinions are in abundance, and this is not a bad thing. It shows that most people in education care about what they are doing.

Day 5: Where are you carrying responsibility that was never actually yours to hold?

This is a good question. I think many of us carry all that experience within education. We can all remember the teacher who inspired us to become teachers. We can all remember the teachers we did not want to be. This is important in informing our teaching identity, but as with anything, I think it is important to continue to build your own brand. We all have something to offer, and we all have a different approach, and that is again a good thing. We can all learn from each other, and I will say this again and again: There is no one in the world you can’t learn something from. That is one thing I will hold. What is not necessarily ours to hold are all the negatives that we experienced; it’s important to let this go so that we can be fully present.

Day 6: Save this if…

You leave work physically tense or emotionally drained most days.

You care deeply about culture but feel limited by capacity or systems.

You’re realizing culture lives in daily design- not just intentions.

Send this to someone who…

Cares deeply about people but is carrying more than they admit.

Is trying to lead well inside real constraints

Needs language for what they’re sensing but haven’t named yet.

Best wishes for a new year, happy 2026!

These are some additional recommended resources for teacher-writers:

The Teacher- Writer by Christine Dawson

See Jane Write — a teacher-writer collective

EthicalELA- powered by teachers with regular open writes

The Book of Alchemy by Suleika Jaouad

When I do have a day off, I usually make a list of things to do vs. things I want to do and then I try to think about what is the most reasonable way to get the most on the list accomplished. Sometimes this is great, I mark things off the list, and I get the satisfaction of getting things done. Or sometimes, I try to look at the list of everything I have to do and instead do everything else that I want to do. These are the times I wish could have more often and the ones I remember, the days of doing nothing.

Instead, I usually remember the events or trips I’ve attended, or the school lessons, the drama of the day, or the mind-numbing amounts of TV I have watched. To prevent any more mind-numbing, and in honor of National Day on Writing, here’s a list to do on a day of doing nothing, which I practice regularly and find helpful.

1. Have a limited list, nothing that overwhelms you.
2. Just take the time to write down everything you’d like to do.
3. Exercise in a way that you really like to, with no time limit or without watching the time.
4. Day of Beauty —this is a phrase my niece coined that is both for males and females. Take some time for self-care. A long shower, nails, or anything else you’ve completely neglected.
5. Try to see someone you have been meaning to get in touch with but haven’t had the time, just find a way to see them or write them a note or something to brighten their day.
6. Learn something or try something you’ve never done.
7. Go sit somewhere beautiful.
8. Free write.
9. READ as long as you want with no purpose other than to enjoy reading.
10. Last, throw this list away and go do whatever you want; it’s your day off, and the sky is the limit.

Music is an interesting thing. It’s so important, so personal, and yet so unique, at times divisive. No matter how you slice it, we all spend a fair amount of time listening to, talking about, or going to see music.

I recently read the above poem, and I thought it was so true. No matter your taste in music, the song of your life is the most important one you will write. If we are lucky, the song of our life is true; it has cadence, melody, and a hook that brings everyone in. Many of us experience the song of life in both minor and major, with both beauty and pain. Even so, it is the song of your life.

With that said, I would like to relive so as not to forget the ten best concerts of my life…

1. Allman Brothers Band — my first concert, I attended it at Oak Mountain with my family, so we could spy on my sister who was on a date. Lucky for me, I’m the youngest.
2. Moe — it was about 2 in the morning, I climbed up onto the speaker next to the stage, and no one made me leave.
3. Howie Day at Berklee College of Music and Keller Williams at Boston University — I saw both of them around the same time in Boston and just loved seeing how one human could make so much music in such a different way.
4. Any Sunday at Matt Murphy’s in Boston, my last year of college — the Barr Brothers, John Brown’s Body, and more — you never knew who would show up, and it was always free-flowing.
5. Spring Concert in the parking lot at Boston College- It was always exciting because it was always a surprise for me, at the end of exams, and it didn’t matter who it was, we celebrated! The best I remember were Guster and Jurassic 5.
6. Neko Case, I locked arms with two best friends and danced the whole show, also Widespread Panic and Dotty Peoples with the People’s Choice choir at Bonnaroo, with a combination of jam and gospel, unparalleled.
7. Tedeschi Trucks Band at a venue near Fenway, especially their song, “Make a joyful noise…” just so true about what music is and what it’s like to experience.
8. Small bar concerts in Boston with Umphrey’s McGee and Iron and Wine.
9. Any show at the legendary Paradise Rock Club… Robert Randolph and the Family Band, and Strangefolk on New Year's Eve were definitely some memorable ones.
10. Two of my friends got married at her childhood home, and Shovels and Rope played under a tent in the driveway.
11. I celebrated my 40th birthday by first going to Maggie Rogers with my sister in Atlanta, and then with the Band Silhouette and Bob Marston at my family’s lake house.
12. Before my nephew left to go to college at Tufts in Boston, his band, Dogwood, played a show at a new development in downtown Birmingham, Lakeview Marina, an amazing venue with stunning sunset views, great people, and music.
13. Recently, the Band Silhouette played for our wedding party, overlooking Birmingham at Vulcan Park and Museum. We invited all our favorite people to celebrate, and the lead singer is a former student of mine. I danced with my husband to Jesus, Etc. by Wilco, and I danced with my dad to Teach Your Children by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young.

Ok, so maybe that’s not ten, but that’s roughly the best of the best, and what a walk down memory lane it’s been to write this. Many of the venues in this post are now closed, but the thrill of live music will always be. And I hope, if nothing else, you think of your own ten, and never let the music go out of your life.

Recently, some mom friends and I hosted a retreat at a private space in Chelsea, AL. You might have guessed it; I am a recent mom, and when you find friends who are in a similar stage of life as you, you jump at the chance. There are many mom groups out there, but one that is also near to my heart is how I spent my summer taking Fit4Mom classes with Asher, which was the best part. So I guess life-changing events such as childbirth call for some pretty honest, intentional but perhaps drastic workshopping. I am doing so with a mixture of defense to my husband, who now thinks I am a pagan, as well as just to let you know how amazing it was!

For this retreat, a new and old friend, Jane Mayer, led us in a variety of medicinal practices, including a sound bath, hike, flower bath, and oil rub making. We began with a sound bath, Jane played on crystal bowls as we introduced each other and did a little journal writing. I read a writing from Kahil Gibran, The Mother.

Next, we picked a bunch of flowers from special places around the property, my son’s birthday tree, my grandmother’s favorite flower, gardenia, eucalyptus, basil, rosemary, and azaleas. We peeled off all the petals and put all of them in a bath of water. As we hiked, we carried ground tobacco to offer blessings to spots along the way or to say a prayer. When we got back from the hike, we poured the now warmed by the sun flower bath on each other’s backs and jumped into the lake water.

After a lunch of grilled vegetable sandwiches with eggs, gazpacho, and salad, we had another sound bath, this time with all of us on our yoga mats. We read Dear Mama by Jessica Urlichs in a chorale read, and then started on our craft for the day, oil rub. In jars that we blessed with burning cedar, we then chose relaxing herbs such as mugwort, lavender, and chamomile, and added oil. For each jar, we prayed a blessing on the person who received it.

And that was nourishing the mother, a day of relaxation and truly what the title says, taking time to nourish ourselves and the earth around us. Nothing more, nothing less.

It turns out happiness is free!

Ok, maybe not really, but there is a free class available on the science of well-being, taught by Laura Santos at Yale, on the actual research surrounding happiness. I learned about this through my newest favorite podcast, Raising Good Humans, and started it myself using the Coursera LMS. There is a version for teens, parents, and generally to college-age students.

With the recent amount of mental health issues in our world, this course is so needed! So far, here are some of my takeaways…

Being as I have had my fair share of counseling, as well as being a teacher, I have engaged and advised on the exploration of happiness, wellness, and joy. One thing she starts with, and I think is important, is not only to lead with your strengths, but choose situations which allow you to capitalize on them.

So first, you take an inventory of your happiness level as well as your character strengths. It turns out some of my top traits are: appreciation of beauty and excellence, love of learning, and kindness. Not surprisingly, some of what I scored the lowest are: prudence and self-regulation. Yikes! This practice did open up some obvious flaws for me, but really, the idea is to lead more with your strengths, particularly within your job search. When these are nurtured, you have time to work on the lower-ranking characteristics.

Second, she identifies a GI Joe fallacy, which is what most of just tend to think surrounding a lot, knowing is half the battle, does not apply to happiness because often our intuition and habits can be wrong. She also challenges students to work at rewiring their brains for well-being. This includes actual research-supported methods that increase happiness: practice gratitude, exercise, which impacts happiness even more than medicine, meditation, and my favorite: play positive memories in your mind, 3 times a week, for 8 minutes, and it’s all been proven to increase your happiness significantly.

Rewiring happens in the following ways, more specifically:

• Signature Strengths — using your top character strengths in new ways
• Savoring — taking time to savor the things you enjoy
• Gratitude — (List and/or Letter) — expressing gratitude for the people and things in your life
• Kindness — increasing your acts of kindness
• Social Connection — making connections with strangers and acquaintances, along with scheduling time for the people in your life
• Exercise — increasing your physical activity to at least 30 minutes a few times a week
• Sleep — making sure you sleep at least 7 hours a night, several times a week — the consequences for this are crazy, so really do take this one seriously!
• Meditation — meditating for 5–10 minutes if you are a beginner or increasing your time in meditation if you already meditate regularly

As the definition in the photo states, Santos warns about our hedonic adaptation and teaches you how to rewire your brain to what makes you happy. It has often been said that comparison is the theft of joy, and within this context, it is certainly true. She goes through examples of diversifying your taste, how to make better decisions, and how comparison really does steal your happiness.

For example, if you have a piece of chocolate next to a sardine, the chocolate is the obvious choice, but if it’s chocolate next to a Michelin star dinner, the latter might keep us from enjoying that one piece of chocolate. Similarly, if we always order the same thing every time we go to a restaurant, we will eventually not enjoy that one dish as much. And this is a whole lesson in itself, taking the time to savor what we do have, and I think we learn to value these things when we practice gratitude regularly. So often we are not happy because one, she calls it, misswanting, and two, we value the wrong things, money vs. experience, or even the freedom of what she identifies as “time affluence.” Studies show that we can be trained to want what makes us happy, experience beats money every time, and time affluence is the real luxury.

And one more key takeaway and method, from psychologist Gabriele Oettingen, is to engage in 5 minutes of quiet and calm for the WOOP Method, which means to Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, and Plan. There is a lengthy interview in the course which describes this process, but in short, it starts with identifying your wish, and putting it into practice with an If____________________, then I will _________ statement.

So perhaps the source of many of our “unwell” might be the current state of the world, or it is that we often can’t even identify what we want. As a new mother, I think this has many applications. Learning to rewire your brain regularly really helps more than most of what I have done in my past 42 years. It’s all supported by research, and there are plenty of rabbit holes of reading and TED talks to continue a deeper exploration of all these topics.

So, advice for now: sign up today!

If it turns out that we do achieve well-being, then what?!

Recently, I attended the 6th annual Speculative Education Colloquium, with Nicole Mirra and Antero Garcia leading, and Dr. Shirin Vossoughi and Dr. Jonathan Rosa as the speakers. I can’t remember how I started attending these, but they are two of my favorite Education researchers, and I have always enjoyed them in the past. Within our current context of education, it seemed particularly salient to grapple with what is and what is currently being destroyed.

To summarize, we started with gratitude for the future, by co-writing an anonymous Google doc that asked us to think about what we would hope our children or future selves would thank us for by what we have done in our current moment. To register for the event, we were also asked to answer what sort of education our youth deserve. Last, an important question to hold on to and reflect on: what sustains you?

For me, it’s these types of events, learning from other scholars, and creating as well as sharing art, writing, and anything else that creates community and taps into what I believe is beautiful about humanity. One resource that was shared was the work of Dr. Vossoughi’s Blue Dandelion. Heather Cox Richardson also mentioned in a talk yesterday with Doug Jones about the need to engage daily by creating art, creating videos, and talking about important issues. I also found this poem particularly relevant and important within this framing:

One key moment and something I have been reflecting on as well is that perhaps while much of what we were building as educators is being torn down, perhaps it was never what we wanted to begin with, so while it is easy to despair, perhaps this is even more of a time to create, to dream, and to make the type of school systems that are worthy of our current generation and one that meets their needs.

One aspect of this is the goal of creating “educationally just learning environments” that should to quote our discussion, be “humanizing; they honor, hold, and engage the fullness and complexity of human experience” and they “cultivate ethical relations between people, families, and places that propel imaginative world making.” An EJLE would also aim to analyze, reflect, listen, make mistakes, and revise as sources of generativity for ideas and relations.

This all led me to consider the generative process of learning, all while within the current status quo of attacks on free speech, the freedom of the press, and book banning. It also led me to question what is going on, what is by design, and what people are fighting for? Underlying this should all be, what’s good for our students?

For example, what do I want my son to know about this time? Would it be, as I wrote in the beginning, gratitude exercise, am I continuing to fight to speak up, and not quit? Isn’t it easier just to accept what’s expected of us? How else do we survive?

Meanwhile, as I went down this rabbit hole, my son held up sticky notes during this particular part of the Zoom call, and I couldn’t help but think, how appropriate. Some of this, we must leave to our students, and much of this we must do in community. So while we can debate, despair, fight, resist, or protest, we also have the opportunity to participate, and we also have the opportunity to engage our students so that they will become a generation that does participate, that knows the power of their voice, and that fights for a better world.

Last but not least, this all made me circle back to the humanizing aspect of an educationally just environment, as well as research that is humanizing and important. One example of this that elucidated this idea for me occurred as I talked with a current classroom teacher who was struggling for a variety of reasons. I was able to share with her some ideas from the work of Dunn and Garcia (2020) and Dunn (2023), who wrote about a teacher's experience of miscarriage and grief while teaching. I thought this was so important as well in understanding how often teaching can be an unhealthy environment for the exact reason that we are often not able to truly grieve or be human in front of our students. And then this all made me understand the importance of good research and education that humanizes and reveals what truly matters.

So I guess this all could be considered a truly speculative experience.

And to continue, here are some of the questions I still have about education, even after completing a doctoral program in English Education, all the grades, and teaching in almost every environment possible:

• What makes research important? Humane? Relevant?
• How does gender influence the teaching profession?
• What about teaching impacts the way students learn? How can we present this in data?
• How does funding support what programs/ schools are successful? What needs to change for this to be equitable?
• What elements of early learning impact reading and literacy in the later years?
• What makes an effective teacher?
• How does trauma impact literacy?
• How does hunger/ poverty impact literacy? Why do we not have more programs that account for these factors?
• What new literacies exist, and how can we incorporate these in how we teach ELA?
• How have screens changed or influenced learning in this period
• How can we explain school shootings? How can we end them?
• Why do American schools continue to struggle with violence?
• How can we best prepare pre-service teachers for success in the classroom?
• What types of schools are the best? Private vs. public, religious vs. secular, charter vs. community?
• What focuses make for the best learning — career, athletics, religious, STEM, STEAM, small schools, college prep, apprentice style, career, and college focused…

Needless to say, even after 18 years in education, there is still so much to address.