Blogs: Anne OBrien

A former public school teacher and Teach For America alumna, Anne O'Brien is the deputy director of the Learning First Alliance.

As we close in on Earth Day 2012, it seems fitting to reflect on the school's dual role in environmental protection.

Like all entities, schools have an environmental footprint. Those in the school generate trash. They use energy for heating, lighting, photocopying and so on. Schools are cleaned using chemicals that have environmental impacts. The list continues.

A former public school teacher and Teach For America alumna, Anne O'Brien is the deputy director of the Learning First Alliance.

According to the recent MetLife Survey of the American Teacher, teachers, parents and students all agree that parent engagement in schools has increased over the past 25 years. Given the role that family engagement plays in not only academic success, but life success, that is great news. However, the survey also noted that parent engagement remains a challenge for many schools.

A former public school teacher and Teach For America alumna, Anne O'Brien is the deputy director of the Learning First Alliance.

In That Used to Be Us, Tom Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum call the flattening of the world "the most profound inflection point for communication, innovation, and commerce since the Gutenberg printing press."

A former public school teacher and Teach For America alumna, Anne O'Brien is the deputy director of the Learning First Alliance.

The importance of "digital literacy" for all citizens in the 21st century seems to be universally accepted. The Obama administration has launched DigitalLiteracy. Microsoft has launched a curriculum on digital literacy as well. Educators across the nation are incorporating it into their schools and their teaching.

A former public school teacher and Teach For America alumna, Anne O'Brien is the deputy director of the Learning First Alliance.

As 2011 winds to a close, we are about to turn the page on a year that saw new evidence suggesting that the education reform policies du jour aren't really working. Most charter schools perform no better than traditional public schools (at least in Chicago); value-added modeling does not produce consistent, reliable measures of teacher effectiveness; and the school curriculum is narrowing, in part because of the pressures of state tests (according to teachers).

A former public school teacher and Teach For America alumna, Anne O'Brien is the deputy director of the Learning First Alliance.

Most people acknowledge that their stress level goes up around the winter holidays. Crowded shopping malls, financial pressures, and additional responsibilities at home, work and in the community can all contribute. Educators can also experience another level of stress: addressing the December holidays at a public school.

A former public school teacher and Teach For America alumna, Anne O'Brien is the deputy director of the Learning First Alliance.

According to a recent study, U.S. governors talk predominantly about one role for education in our society -- an economic one. In analyzing "state of the state" speeches from 2001 to 2008, governors defined education in economic terms 62 percent of the time.

A former public school teacher and Teach For America alumna, Anne O'Brien is the deputy director of the Learning First Alliance.

Approximately 32 percent of students report being bullied at school. Bullied students are more likely to take a weapon to school, get involved in physical fights, and suffer from anxiety and depression, health problems, and mental health problems. They suffer academically (especially high-achieving black and Latino students). And research suggests that schools where students report a more severe bullying climate score worse on standardized assessments than schools with a better climate.

A former public school teacher and Teach For America alumna, Anne O'Brien is the deputy director of the Learning First Alliance.

For about 10 years of my childhood, I was a Girl Scout. I loved earning badges; it was always my goal to have the most of anyone in my troop. I earned them anyway I could, from selling cookies to riding horses to creating a "secret language" with my brother (communications).

A former public school teacher and Teach For America alumna, Anne O'Brien is the deputy director of the Learning First Alliance.

Most of the population declares their New Year's resolutions January 1. For educators, it happens closer to September 1. And often high on the list: improving relationships with parents.