Maia’s Mailbag: Slack. . . love, hate, or somewhere in between?

Maia’s Mailbag: Slack. . . love, hate, or somewhere in between?

My longtime friend Sorby Grant, Chief Program Officer at the Center for Resilience in New Orleans, reached out recently with some light anguish around her team’s use of Slack. It’s a challenge I’m sure many folks can relate to, so I thought I’d post my response to the...

Reader Mailbag: How to Be A Together Grad School Student

Here’s a great question that recently landed in the mailbag from Mekia L., a principal with KIPP DC, who had just started grad school! I know many of you are in the same boat! What a great question, Mekia! I already know you are rocking out your Google calendar during...
Reader Mailbag: How to Best Sort My Weekly List

Reader Mailbag: How to Best Sort My Weekly List

Your emails, questions and comments have been rolling in! Time to resurrect the mailbag! Here’s one from Stacie, an instructional manager (and former principal and teacher) based in Baltimore! Dear Stacie, This is a very, very good question! It all depends on if...
Mailbag: No Paper? No Problem!

Mailbag: No Paper? No Problem!

Hi Maia, Can you help me out? I’m looking for suggestions from teachers on how to create a classroom environment with less paper for elementary and middle school parents, students and teachers. How can we work with less paper, as our district that does not readily...
Mailbag: Thumbdrives, Google Docs, and Longhand, Oh, My!

Mailbag: Thumbdrives, Google Docs, and Longhand, Oh, My!

Dear Maia, I’m a middle school language arts teacher, and it has gotten increasingly complicated to keep track of my students’ writing over my decade of teaching. Some students want to write by hand.  Others want to draft on laptops or desktop computers. Google Docs...