Nancy Flanagan

2 weeks ago | nepc.colorado.edu | YearBy Year |Nancy Flanagan

If you were in the classroom, as I was for well over three decades, you will have had some experience with tracking— ability grouping, or dividing the class into the Bluebirds, the Orioles and the Buzzards at reading time. And you will know that some teachers strongly resist the impulse to sort and label students, while others endorsed the practice of dividing students by their—key word alert!—perceived differences. I taught 7th grade math for two (non-consecutive) years.

1 month ago | teacherinastrangeland.blog | Nancy Flanagan

Like all educators, I’ve been following the repercussions of the “Dear Colleague” letter the federal government sent to public schools, threatening to cut off funding for schools that dabble in things like human rights and accurate history. The fact that the poor, strapped (snort) Department of Education used some of their evidently dwindling resources to set up a snitch line so parents could rat out teachers and school leaders is telling. Dear Colleague, my ass. More like Big Brother is watching.

2 months ago | nepc.colorado.edu | YearBy Year |Nancy Flanagan

For most of my adult life (other than a brief but wonderful stint in the People’s Republic of Ann Arbor), I’ve been the proverbial blue dot on a red background. Although I am out there as a Democrat (on the executive board of the county party, and Democratic candidate for office), I always felt fine about living near, and occasionally hanging out with, Republicans. They were my neighbors and my work colleagues, the white-collar parents of my students, singers in the church choir I directed.

2 months ago | nepc.colorado.edu | YearBy Year |Nancy Flanagan

or most of my adult life (other than a brief but wonderful stint in the People’s Republic of Ann Arbor), I’ve been the proverbial blue dot on a red background. Although I am out there as a Democrat (on the executive board of the county party, and Democratic candidate for office), I always felt fine about living near, and occasionally hanging out with, Republicans. They were my neighbors and my work colleagues, the white-collar parents of my students, singers in the church choir I directed.

Jan 23, 2025 | nepc.colorado.edu | YearBy Year |Nancy Flanagan

When I first retired (from the classroom, not from working in education), I moved away from the school district where I had lived and taught. I’d been there for well over 30 years and had seen—up close and personal—the power of school boards to impact educational climate in a school district. I’d been watching through four decades of local policy-making— the good, the bad and the out-and-out malicious. I’ve got stories. And  I’ve written about the town where I lived and taught.