While my 9-year-old son was getting help with math (from our favorite friend and tutor), I got the chance to spend an hour with my two girls.
What a conversation.
My 7-year-old started with “We had J.A. (Junior Achievement) today. I’m going to be a nurse.”
Apparently that was the card she picked during a game the volunteer played with them.
Always ready to latch onto any conversation that includes discussion about future careers and how to get them, I informed my little girl that two of her grandmothers are nurses, and so is …

Do you ever feel this way, moms? That change is ever present? I’ve really felt it recently. Sometimes I wish it would stop!
I first glimpsed it on Sunday – tiny buds of green on the formerly barren trees around our park. Today, they’re full leaves.
A sign of a new season. Change.
There’s been lots of change around our lives in the past few months: many families – and friends – have moved away, two friends soon to welcome babies, one sport dropped and another began. As much as we want things …

Arizona often ranks very high in the country for school choice. I wrote a piece for the Tribune last week about this fact – and asked different groups to talk about whether or not that translates into a better education system in the state.
Now I ask you. What choice do you make for your child’s education? Do you haveel you have a choice? In some cases, families choose their neighborhood school. Some choose private education. Some pick a program in a district on the way to work.
The reasons for the …

I’m not much of a poet, but here’s a short version of our first day of school morning.

With each passing school year, expectations are raised, the work gets tougher and the amount presented to students grows.
More students — or their parents — are seeking outside help from tutors to keep up with it all.
At the end of last school year, my son’s teacher expressed concern about how he’ll do with third-grade math. That’s when division and multiplication come into play.
With the school year right around the corner for my son, and most East Valley students, now may be the time to line up help.
Jennifer Wilkins, co-owner of …

Twenty-six days.
That’s how long before school starts again for my kiddos.
That’s how long I have to get them ready for the reality that first grade and third grade will be a lot tougher than kindergarten and second grade.
In that time, I have school supplies to organize, after-school activities to schedule, music lessons to plan and a work calendar to finalize.
Last year, we welcomed a new baby just weeks before classes started. And with that, I was home after school. I really enjoyed it. Once I returned to work full-time, having …

I picked up a recent agenda for a school board meeting and searched the list of resignations. There, I see it. My children’s music teacher is leaving. I’m pretty sure this teacher was in her first year at the school, and my kids loved her. She was creative, fun and inventive.
If I’m right – and I’m pretty sure I am – she was the second one-year-only music teacher in a row. My son liked the one before her, too. Our school doesn’t have much turnover, so even one departure stands …

State Sen. David Schapira, D-Tempe, spent one afternoon last week at the White House with the Young Elected Officials Network.
The event gave Schapira, also a Tempe Union High School District board member, an opportunity to talk with President Barack Obama.
“I had a chance to talk to the president about education and the Arizona fires,” Schapira said via phone on June 17, the day of the meeting. “He expressed support for our folks in Arizona working hard to put out the flames. He mentioned he’s going to continue to do everything …

We’ve opened up an online forum for readers to share their thoughts on struggles teachers may face.
After our story ran about teacher morale, and as eyes nationwide continue to look at education reform, we created this opportunity for you to share your own thoughts.

Arizona lawmakers are proposing a plan that would allow public districts and charter schools to shorten their school year. As I understand it, it would require them to increase the daily minutes of school to make up for the lost days.
The idea was proposed to be a cost-saving mechanism because classrooms could be heated and cooled less and buses could have 10 fewer days on the road.
This is not a new idea. The Mesa school board asked the state to consider this in a letter last year.
Hawaii actually did this …