Recently I have been able to publish some articles related to school and teaching, so I wanted to share links for those articles.

Cell Phones

Like many teachers, I have had trouble with students being distracted by cell phones. I have tried working with these students in many ways, but it is a difficult situation. I wrote the following essay about cell phone addiction and it was published in Education Week in May.

Student Cellphone Addiction Is No Joke

A week later, PBS News Hour contacted me and wanted to reprint that article on their web site. It became their most-read article and generated a long list of responses. You can see their version at

Students are addicted to their cell phones and need our help

Tim Walker, a writer from NEA Today saw the article on PBS News Hour and wanted to interview me and others about the situation of cell phones in the classroom. His article is in the NEA Today summer edition and is also available online at this address

By Opening the door to cell phones, are schools also feeding an addiction?

The Missing Singular Gender-Neutral Pronoun

The next article is about the use of “they” as a singular, gender-neutral pronoun. I had marked that as an error throughout my teaching career, but recent trends and decisions make me believe it is time to move on. PBS News Hour ran this article on their web site in August.

He, she, they? Why it's time to leave this grammar rule behind

I hope some of these articles may help you as you begin a new school  year.