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Classroom Q&A

With Larry Ferlazzo

In this EdWeek blog, an experiment in knowledge-gathering, Ferlazzo will address readers’ questions on classroom management, ELL instruction, lesson planning, and other issues facing teachers. Send your questions to lferlazzo@epe.org. Read more from this blog.

Teaching Opinion

6 Words of Wisdom From Teachers for Teachers

By Larry Ferlazzo — November 03, 2025 1 min read
Conceptual illustration of classroom conversations and fragmented education elements coming together to form a cohesive picture of a book of classroom knowledge.
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Today’s post is the latest installment in a multiyear series in which ÌÇÐ͝Âþvlog offer advice—in six words or less—about teaching to other ÌÇÐ͝Âþvlog. Some share more than one set of those pearls of wisdom:

Denita Harris, Ph.D., is the assistant superintendent for diversity, equity, and inclusion for the Wayne Township metro school district in Indianapolis:

Teaching is a marathon; practice breathing.

Erica Silva, Ed.D., leads professional development with schools and districts across the country to advance educational equity:

Show compassion to yourself and others.

Malkia Williams is a district multilingual coach in the Aldine Independent school district in Texas:

Acknowledge first, respect second, connect always.

Jenny Vo is the Greater Houston-area English-learner director for the International Leadership of Texas Charter Schools:

No child is a blank slate.

Valerie King is the author of Make it Relevant: Strategies to Nurture, Develop and Inspire Young Learners:

Prioritize inquiry, minimize grading, maximize inspiration.

Marina Rodriguez is a 6th grade dual-language arts teacher at a school in College Station, Texas:

Hold onto hope for each student.
Begin each day with clean slates.
Know them before you teach them.

Jason D. DeHart is a high school English teacher and has recently published the book Building Critical Literacy and Empathy with Graphic Novels with the National Council of Teachers of English:

Being great at teaching requires authenticity.

Sarah Nichols is a national-board-certified teacher and Utah Teacher Fellow in Salt Lake City:

Leave the work at work; rest.
Build relationships and even better boundaries.
Don’t speak until they are listening.

Kwame Sarfo-Mensah is a 17-year veteran educator and the founder and CEO of Identity Talk Consulting, LLC, an independent educational consulting firm:

Growth can’t happen without critical reflection.

Ryan Huels is an elementary school principal in Oregon, Ill.:

The Best PD is next door!

is a middle school teacher and project-based-learning/social-emotional-learning consultant:

Less of us, more of them.

Consider contributing a question to be answered in a future post. You can send one to me at lferlazzo@educationweek.org. When you send it in, let me know if I can use your real name if it’s selected or if you’d prefer remaining anonymous and have a pseudonym in mind.

You can also contact me on X at or on Bluesky at .

Just a reminder; you can subscribe and receive updates from this blog via . And if you missed any of the highlights from the first 13 years of this blog, you can see a categorized list here.

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The opinions expressed in Classroom Q&A With Larry Ferlazzo are strictly those of the author(s) and do not reflect the opinions or endorsement of Editorial Projects in Education, or any of its publications.

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