When I began my teaching career in 2007, more than a quarter of the students at my Queens elementary school were English language learners. Each year, our school seemed to shift its strategy for English as a New Language instruction in a fresh attempt to best serve those students.

With spring in bloom, teachers are exploring creative ways to bring joy into their classrooms during a stressful time. They share some ideas that have worked in their classrooms to help make learning fun.

When I was a high school student, nothing pleased me more than sitting down with a blank planner, color-coding my class assignments and creating a detailed to-do list of tasks I could check off as I completed them.

After a year in which instruction was disrupted by the pandemic, that back-to-basics approach of phonics-based reading instruction may be especially important to help struggling readers take concrete steps toward progress.

As early as March 2020, headlines warned of the “learning loss” that students would experience as a result of disrupted and remote schooling. But that phrase misclassifies the real issue and obscures how teachers can best support their students.

Thousands of New York City public school teachers work together in Integrated Co-Teaching classrooms, in which one special education teacher and one general education teacher work alongside each other. But what are the ingredients of a successful classroom partnership?