Ask any first-grade teacher: telling time is the unit where math meets existential crisis. Suddenly, kids realize their world is divided into invisible chunks—snack time, recess, “five more minutes.” Teaching it isn’t just about clocks, it’s about control, patience, and the first taste of scheduling. That’s why games and activities matter: they transform abstract numbers…

Los Angeles is a city that resists singular stories: freeways cut it into ribbons, neighborhoods refuse to align, and art tends to bloom in the margins rather than in gleaming downtown towers. That’s precisely why Carolina A. Miranda, culture columnist for the Los Angeles Times, has become such an indispensable chronicler of the city’s artistic…

Close reading has become one of those phrases that make kids groan and teachers roll their eyes, because somewhere along the way it got translated into “underline five verbs and call it a day.” But real close reading—the kind that actually slows students down and sharpens their critical thinking—is less about worksheets and more about…

Every September, classrooms break out the papel picado and the bilingual posters—and too often stop there. Hispanic Heritage Month deserves better than token mariachi playlists. The good news: kids are natural culture-sponges, and there are dozens of ways to make this month a genuine exploration rather than a laminated display. 1. Storytelling as Resistance Read…