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Students talking to each other.

Screenshot of CBS On the Road Series. Picture of the bottom of a swimming pool from atop with text that reads, "If I couldn't handle not being good at something, then how could I consider myself a successful person?"

What's Not in the Lesson Plan

It might be crazy to admit that one of my objectives on Fridays is to get my students to cry, but it isn’t because I am giving an impossible test...

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ACE Teachers posing before So-Cal Marathon 2026

Running Through Discomfort

I feel great. Granted, I’m only 3 miles into my 13.1 mile journey, but I feel better than ever. It’s hot, but I’ve run in this weather countless times. After...

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A First Communion and a New Community

Photo credit: Morgan Hale (ACE 27 - Jacksonville) As a student at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, Nick Hughes (ACE 27, Detroit) was trying to learn...

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Choosing Joy

Sometimes we have teachers that touch our lives in ways we only discover once we are well past their class in our lives. Those teachers can be few and far...

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New Blog, Who Dis?

The meme "new phone, who dis?" became popular when people began upgrading their smartphones and realized that they didn't know all of their contacts' information by heart. When an unsaved...

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The Aspect of Love

"You're an ACE teacher?!" one student exclaimed during a brief chat after her soccer game. "All the ACE teachers are so nice!" I've met most of the people who deserve...

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PIE ... Slicing Up 2019-2020

It's September 2020, and educators across the country are embarking on a new school year. Many things are still in question...Is it safe to educate face-to-face? If so, how long...

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Some Things Will Never Change

As summer draws to a close, and we prepare for the uncertain future of the new school year, a teacher's traditional icebreaker — What did you do over summer vacation...

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Forming Educators from a Distance

At the beginning of 2020, who would have foreseen that this would become the year of Zoom calls? Our day-to-day lives have been transformed by the need to social distance...