Vacation, grading, and a heart of wisdom
Vacations are tricky things.The "freedom" they profess to offer is illusory: the more time I spend upfront with family, books, hobbies, or sleep (i.e. regaining normal functionality), the greater the...
View ArticleFragments
Thoughts to flesh out at some point, maybe:âââââI have a couple students who are sleepy every single class period. They're not being defiant; they simply can't stay awake for more than...
View ArticleThe logarithmic learning curve of teaching
It's often said that teaching has a steep learning curve. True, sort of. More precisely, teaching has a logarithmic learning curveâit's steep at first but eventually flattens out. This has two...
View ArticleMountaintop
Martin Luther King, Jr., the night before his assassination:Well, I don't know what will happen now; we've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter to me now, because I've been to...
View ArticleSo This Is What It Feels Like...To Have a Bright Spot
So yesterday I had an incident at school. Long story short: my kids were behaving like absolute zoo animals. Â It was just like what you see in the movies -- kids throwing pencils at each other,...
View ArticleOn not feeling overwhelmed
The past two weeks have been intense. I've attended a TFA- or teaching-related meeting almost every day after school. The district replaced our principal with someone who has never worked in the...
View ArticleOn being more like an elevator
I think I'll write a quasi-continuation of my last post, in honor of my first snow day ever. (Thanks, Nemo!)Even as a second-year teacher, it's easy to feel paralyzed by the sheer quantity of things I...
View ArticleSnow day #2
I just received a pre-recorded phone call informing me that school is canceled tomorrow. Under normal circumstances, this would be cause for celebration, or at least quiet thanksgiving and an early...
View ArticleA guide to high school slang
After a year and a half of teaching, I've become quite familiar with the slang of teenagers in Rhode Island and beyond. Below is my best attempt to define some of the terms and expressions that I hear...
View ArticleThink about these things
I have a confession to make: I have not been myself lately. I've felt bitter about being given three preps (plus a new advisory), just as two were becoming manageable. My feedback for others has been...
View ArticleWhen salsa is like math
Last September, I joined Brown's salsa club because I wanted something fun to do outside of teaching, and lessons were cheap and nearby. I improved a lot during the first semester, in large part due to...
View ArticleSecond-year success stories
March is a long and relentless month. I would say it's kind of like October, the other dreaded month, but without even the prospect of the holidays around the corner. March is about when teachers start...
View ArticleGood Friday
This is a poem-sermon I first heard two years ago. It has no connection to teaching or education (except in a grand, cosmic sense I suppose), but after a physically and mentally draining month, it's a...
View ArticleTwo stories
It's not quite dark on Sunday evening, but I've already finished all my planning, copying, grading, and data tracking for tomorrow. This is a very novel experience, even as a second-year teacher, so...
View ArticleRough day
I drafted a lengthy, pensive yet optimistic, I-can't-believe-it's-already-the-end-of-May kind of blog entry during my prep today... and then period 6-7 happened. It was, without a doubt, the most...
View ArticleDrafty
Over the past month, I've begun drafting three entries on this blog and another two on my private blog. Only one has made it past a few sentences. This is a testament to the disjointedness of my...
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"You will always remain in my mind and heart"
Okay, so I lied about not posting until the end of the semester. AÂ student wrote me this letter the other day that's too good not to share. It's an encouraging reminder that a teacher's legacy extends...
View ArticleThe Role of Parents
The longer I am in teaching, the more I feel that the biggest factor in (the vast majority of) students' academic success is their parents. Â Although there have been instances where a teacher or other...
View ArticleTwo years
The school year is almost over. This week is reserved for underclassmen finals, and grades are due by next Monday, which means most students will stop showing up after that. Last Saturday was...
View ArticleCommencement
Hello world! I'm back from a three month long blogging hiatus, during which I:finished the school year in Providence, said goodbye to my colleagues, friends, students, and packed my life into four...
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