Peter Medlin

Rachel joins Teachers' Lounge after a busy few months between getting a Master’s Degree, securing her first full-time teaching job, and finishing up student teaching AT HER OLD HIGH SCHOOL!

“It is extraordinarily unfair to have only blind youngsters totally ignorant about this, one of the major aspects of being a human being, that is having sexual relationships," said Gaylen Kapperman, a blind professor emeritus at Northern Illinois University.

Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin lost the June 28 primary. In his concession speech, he called on party members to follow civil debate as a cornerstone.

Joshua Nichols said he would be disappointed if Congress couldn’t compromise to continue the federal waivers.“That's going to add definitely another level of struggle to families. Now you're going to have to come up with a new solution on how to feed your kids.”

Hear a year in the life of a teacher, in real-time

Our classroom correspondent tells the story of his school year – a year in the life of a teacher -- the ups and downs, holidays, tests, all of it. It's a month-by-month trip through the 2021-22 school year.

“Our services are available year-round, and that includes crisis support. What we offer is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. During office hours, we're here to provide students but we also have availability for on-call counseling support," said Tim Paquette, director of Counseling and Consultation Services at NIU.

“I think for a long time, not just Summit but regional programs, in general, were thought of this place we put kids we don't know how to manage. We pay a reduced rate for them to come to school and we just hope to not hear a whole lot.”

“This isn't a political debate. This isn't left or right. This is a public health crisis. And if we can't all get on board to protect our schools and protect the students and staff members, we've got a lot of work to do as a community.”

“A great many of our students that get pulled out of their home schools on an EIA, would be for having a vape on them. Pushing that kid out of school, who is often a student on track and doing well in school, to kick them out -- we're not owning their education anymore, and outsourcing it. It really doesn't do anything to repair the harm that was done," said RPS' chief of schools.