May 2011
107 posts
5 tags
The Best Professional Advice I Ever Got →
thingsforteachers:
This is a short but great blog post, so I didn’t want to share too much. Click through to read the rest- it’s something that is important to do.
The best professional advice I was ever given was by a math teacher at the school where I student taught. He told me to create a “happy folder.”
I had one of these in Little Rock when I was working with City Year; it was...
5 tags
Maybe I'm Out of Touch
But things like this drive me crazy:
“(anyschool) is an educational management organization, which operates (anynumberofcampuses) of (acharterschool).”
I am an educator. I want to work for a school, not a management organization. I do not manage, I teach. I teach students, not clients or customers. It’s a matter of semantics, but the semantics are important. These are...
5 tags
Adventures in Being Short
monasequeda answered: I know I’m late to the party- I’m 5’3 and I work with little kids, so it’s no prob. But when I wander into the 5/6th wing of the school…
I’m 5’2” and apparently look like I still belong in high school. When I was placed in sixth grade for my...
6 tags
: So I wore my gay pride shirt to school today. →
irislovesmeat:
And in chemistry class I was talking to my friend, Jack, about a gay pride festival I went to. My teacher, stupid nosy bitch, decides she wants to join in on the conversation. She asks me what I’m talking about so I turned around and her reaction was to make a noise of utter disgust. She asked…
Read the whole thing — this turns uplifting and applaudable. A great...
Something very big and very good may be coming my...
but then again, it also may not.
It boils down to this, as far as the options I have right now:
move somewhere I know I may be socially and emotionally very happy, but will lack a defined “purpose”/a career, or
stay here to do something incredibly good in terms of “purpose,” but be trapped in a place I know I don’t fit.
The first option feels irresponsible...
3 tags
Introduced a colleague to the concept of Tumblr...
Incredibly excited to hear from her when she gets an account.
Tomorrow: The professor.
Next week: The head of the education department.
Soon: THE WORLD.
6 tags
3 tags
Posting teacher dare responses later today.
Have a lesson to teach, then a final to take, then the grown-up equivalent of a prom. And then about forty more pages worth of work to finish.
On the upside, I showed a friend the final in which we had to answer as to how we would improve reading comprehension, vocabulary, and writing in our classroom. She responded “I want to be in your...
5 tags
Teacher Dare Day two-fer:
So many people seem to wear flats. If I wore flats in the middle school I would be shorter than some of my students! How tall are you?
7 tags
Teacher Dare Day! (Technically it still is in the...
Do you/Do you plan to build your classroom libraries primarily from school-supplied texts, texts you choose yourself on the school budget, or texts you’ve collected yourself (from used bookstores, library sales, etc.)?
6 tags
I’ve become immune to most TV parodies, but it’s worth the mind-numbing stupidity to watch my Seuss-loving friend view a completely inappropriate Cat in the Hat farce in utter horror.
I wish I had the sense to snap a picture of his face.
teacher-girl asked: Teacher Dare Day: Given the names of your certification tests (New Yawk), where do you hail from?
6 tags
Highlights of the day:
Students keep showing up to tutoring that I have never seen before, and becoming regulars.
I had to argue “Brendan” back to his homeroom, because he was done with his homework but just wanted to hang out with me some more. I’ve gotten approval to start pulling tutoring hours on more days during the week.
“Shanna” came back for the first time to comic book club...
2 tags
“They’ve laid waste to her!”
– Devin, explaining to Colleen how tired I was after work today.
6 tags
Progress. Puzzling progress.
“Tony,” the student who was constantly testing my authority right off the bat and trying to make me mad, was giving Mr. J hell. Or I assume he was giving him hell. I could hear Mr. J shouting at him (and, I believe, some compatriots) to get in their homeroom.
“I’m going to tutoring.”
“You’re not going to tutoring today!”
“Why?!”
...
3 tags
What your teachers are doing →
Almost all of your public school teachers have sex. Most of them enjoy it and do it repeatedly, even.
Many of your public school teachers vote for the Democratic party. Some are conservative Republicans. Some are Communists.
Some of your public school teachers are atheists. Or Episcopalians. Or Baptists. Or Scientologists.
All of your public school teachers go home at the end of the school...
5 tags
Certification Exam Results Are in!
LAST: PASSED
ATS-W: PASSED
(To me it is not just about whether I passed, but what scores I got, and I was satisfied enough, as much of a perfectionist as I am - some of these questions, I think, are about telling them what they want to hear, rather than a measure of how good a teacher you have the potential to be.)
Next stops: CST-General, GRE. I haven’t yet scheduled the CST, I have to...
6 tags
"Courts, Kids, and the Constitution" - Suggestions...
Because this particular set involves direct transcripts of Supreme Court cases, there are a few important steps that need to be taken before using them in the classroom.
Make sure that students understand the purpose and function of the Supreme Court, even if in a basic way.
After choosing a particular court case, go over any potentially unfamiliar vocabulary beforehand — but this is...
16 tags
Guest Post: In Which My Brother Is Articulate,...
I’ll be posting my own recommendations shortly, but the highlight of the night is my brother — English major and Supreme Court groupie — and his general suggestions to teachers everywhere, written from personal experience and a geekish love for law.
EDIT: Fixed all that bizarre jibberish. Wasn’t there when I first posted.
May it please the Court.
I have a...
