Ask a Teacher

Three teachers answer questions submitted by Slate readers. Today’s big question: Will you friend your students on Facebook? Can they follow you on Twitter? Our teachers: Matt Dicks is a 5th grade teacher at Wolcott School in West Hartford, CT. He’s also an author and storyteller. If you’re a fan of The Moth, you might like to know that he’s a 17-time Moth StorySLAM champion and two-time GrandSLAM champion. You can read his blog at matthewdicks.com Valerie Lake is an 8th grade English...

Three teachers answer questions submitted by Slate readers. Today’s big question: How do you maintain your integrity as a teacher, guide, and mentor while trying to accommodate the testing and standardization required of most public institutions? Do you teach to the test? Why, or why not? Our teachers: - Matt Dicks … a fifth grade teacher at Wolcott School in West Hartford, CT. He’s also an author and storyteller. If you’re a fan of The Moth, you might like to know that he’s a 17-time Moth...

Three teachers answer questions submitted by Slate readers. Today’s big question: "What do you do with a student in your class that you genuinely dislike?” Hosted by Matt Collette of the Teacher Project at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. - Andrew Ahn, a teacher and adviser at City as School, an alternative high school for 11th and 12th grade transfer students in New York - Tessa Benau, a 10th grade math teacher from Vanguard High School in New York. - Ray Salazar, a...

Three teachers answer questions submitted by Slate readers. Today’s big question: "If you were to design a system for evaluating teacher performance, what would it look like?” Hosted by Matt Collette of the Teacher Project at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. - Ruth Jetton, a 6th grade math and science teacher at the Academy of Global Citizenship, a public charter school located on the southwest side of Chicago. - Valerie Lake, an 8th grade English teacher and literacy...

Three teachers answer questions submitted by Slate readers. Today's big question: "How do teachers respond when they don't know the answer to a student's question?" Hosted by Matt Collette of the Teacher Project at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Our teachers: - Valerie Lake, an eighth-grade English teacher and literacy coach at Lower Manhattan Community Middle School in New York. - Matt Dicks, a fifth-grade teacher at Wolcott School in West Hartford, Conn. He’s also...

Three teachers answer questions submitted by Slate readers. Today's big question: "Why do some teachers continue to assign hours of homework when studies show it's not helpful?" Hosted by Matt Collette of the Teacher Project at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. - Andrew Ahn, a teacher and adviser at City as School, an alternative high school for 11th and 12th grade transfer students in New York - Tessa Benau, a 10th grade math teacher from Vanguard High School in New...

Three teachers answer questions submitted by Slate readers. Today's big question: "Name a moment that made you want to quit teaching -- then explain why you didn't." Hosted by Matt Collette of the Teacher Project at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Today's teachers: - Ruth Jetton, a 6th grade math and science teacher at the Academy of Global Citizenship, a public charter school located on the southwest side of Chicago. - Valerie Lake, an 8th grade English teacher and...

Three teachers answer questions submitted by Slate readers, including "How do you avoid burnout?" Hosted by Matt Collette of the Teacher Project at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism Today's teachers: - Andrew Ahn, a teacher and adviser at City as School, an alternative high school for 11th and 12th grade transfer students in New York - Tessa Benau, a 10th grade math teacher from Vanguard High School in New York. - Ray Salazar, a high school english teacher in the...

Three teachers answer questions submitted by Slate readers, including "What is the best and worst advice you were given as a new teacher?" Hosted by Matt Collette of the Teacher Project at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Today's teachers: - Valerie Lake, an 8th grade English teacher and literacy coach at Lower Manhattan Community Middle School in New York. - José Vilson, an 8th grade math teacher in New York's Inwood/Washington Heights neighborhood. He's also the...