Guest Speaker Topic:
Teachers … Students (Past and Present)

Colleen Kelly Mellor got tired of reading supposed experts weigh in on educational issues. Many of those had never taught a class successfully or they left the classroom (some became administrators) because they were being eaten alive by the students. She vowed to correct that situation (ever the teacher):

As a result, she began writing of her experiences in the classroom, giving the public a window on the world of good teaching…

To date, she has written approximately 50 Op-Ed’s on this topic for the Pulitzer-Prize-winning Providence Journal, many of which have gone viral.

She encouraged the newspaper’s editor to allow student art to accompany some of her articles–a first–and she also floats the idea of a giant MonsterBoard of jobs for Rhode Island’s students to shop their skills for pay or barter their talents in exchange for help in academic quarters.

Read Colleen’s Pro Jo stories.

Illustrations below are three that accompanied my Op-Ed’s; they’re the work of talented Warwick, Rhode Island students.