Tom Rademacher

Tom Rademacher (Mr. Rad to his students) is an English teacher in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In 2014 he was named Minnesota Teacher of the Year. He teaches writing and writes about teaching on his blog. His book, published by University of Minnesota Press, is called "IT WON’T BE EASY: An Exceedingly Honest (and Slightly Unprofessional) Love Letter to Teaching."

Posts By Tom Rademacher

anti-racism

My High School Never Talked About Race, and Oh Man Did I Miss Out

I grew up in a suburb of Milwaukee, Wisconsin; an incredibly white kid in an almost entirely white school. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the education I got in those schools, an education...

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anti-racism

The Equity Backlash Is Real. Resist It.

A Movement, a Buzzword, but not a Fad. For all its problems, No Child Left Behind illustrated a whole lot of problems that we still haven’t fixed. The hard data that came back showed some of the...

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bias

A Student Left in Handcuffs. We Need to Do Better So It Stops Happening.

There was the day that a sixth grader was upset, was blocked by an administrator from exiting a room and pushed his way past. Within the hour, he was sitting in the principal’s office, handcuffed,...

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Teaching

Pardon My Grumpy Appearance, Kids. This Year I'll Show You More Mr. Nice Guy

I think we all know, or we had better, that the old advice of, “Don’t smile until Christmas,” is just bad. In most classrooms, thankfully, those first few days of laying down the law and scaring the...

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School Discipline

Your Fave Teaching Guru May Tell You What to Do, But What Do YOU Do Next?

If you’re a teacher, the world is awash with people who know how to do your job better than you. Just ask them. Or, better yet, don’t even worry about asking, because they’re going to show up and...

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student achievement

Some Hard-Earned Advice for Teachers Who Want to Be Heard

Five years ago, I was named Minnesota’s Teacher of the Year. The months and years following are a time in my life I now refer to as my “crisis of ego.” I try to be kind to myself. I spent the year...

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