Teacher Appreciation Week starts on Monday and is celebrated annually the first week of May. But here’s the catch — not all teachers like it.

Many appreciate and deeply value the individual expressions of thanks from students and families. But they also can’t help thinking that such forms of appreciation shouldn’t be mistaken for the kinds of systemic innovations that would actually improve education for learners and teachers.

The quality of a substitute teacher has a direct impact on the quality of a student's education. And yet, the shortage of temporary teachers during and since the pandemic has led some states, including Arizona, to lower the requirements for this essential position. 

Carole Basile, dean of Arizona State University’s Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College, recently commented on relaxing the criteria for temporary teachers.

From rising bread and domesticated dogs to penicillin and rubber, humans have a long history of shaping our world through biotechnology — using biological systems and organisms to improve or create desired products.

Today’s hot science topics, such as genetically modified crops and new vaccine techniques, show that biotechnology also plays a large role in society’s present and future. That’s why it’s important to introduce this subject to the next generation of scientists and decision-makers.

The Spring 2022 convocation ceremony of Arizona State University's Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College welcomed more than 1,500 graduates into the world's most important profession: education. 

This semester's graduates included:

For a time, Taura Rush thought becoming a teacher was out of reach. The Arizona Teachers Academy scholarship at Arizona State University — and access to an online degree program — changed that. 

In 2020, after leaving an abusive marriage, Rush, 34, returned to her family in the small town of Joseph City, Arizona. The single mother of two took a job as a school paraprofessional and, to make ends meet, also worked as the maintenance person on the same campus. 

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