My classroom has a great dichotomy. Since I’ve looped with the same kids, a lot of the issues from last year have come back. Here it is in a nutshell. The kids respect my intelligence, but they don’t respect my authority. What’s the result of that? Well, as I found out today, in my first…

Nothing much to report– except that I discovered my school’s copy code! I’ve never felt so lucky before. It’s like the golden prize at the school to know the copy code– my life is now good!

So 2nd year is about a million times easier than the first. Plus, I have the same kids, so I already have a good relationship established with them. This post is nothing more than a funning anecdote in class. So, I was showing my kids the right way to open a binder, since many of…

So, we got out state exam results back. Relatively speaking, when compared to Newark, and especially when compared to our SLT (that’s the geographic region within the city), I did pretty well. My students might even have been #1 within the SLT, but I’m still waiting on the breakdown. With that said, teachers head back…

So I’m in the middle of summer far away from teaching (although I’m doing occasional planning). I’m also taking a class and doing a ridiculous amount of grad school work and essays. I did a couple things today that are actually rooted in my past. I first looked at some old pictures from a study…

So, it’s about 1:15am and I’m eating a bag of sour patch kids, and already resolving to go on a nice long bike ride in the morning to burn it off… But, I’ll share something with you that caught me eye… We are forced to sign up for the Newark teacher’s union and therefore get…

So I think my kids are pretty much finished– even though I got one last thing to teach, they really aren’t doing anything in their literacy class and their behavior is nuts. I’m definitely putting my foot down with detentions, however, and most get the idea that if you don’t want to work during school,…

The past couple weeks have generally been good. I’m starting to finally feel like I belong there. After school detentions are working like a charm, as I give out one detention and then the class is perfect– it’s unfortunate for the first person, but hey, what can ya do? I’ve also been finding my niche…

During all of Institute, you are constantly told, “be strict, be tough– don’t take any garbage”. So EVERY corps member invests A LOT of time to ensure a very strict set of rules. Well, it turns out what I thought was very strict wasn’t strict enough. I’ve called in parents to the school probably over…