Donate Now So, I began my 7 weekend stint with Rise Academy, a local KIPP school, on Saturday– Saturday’s are basically activity classes– I do chess club. So, needless to say, I’m not working in the real grind of the KIPP network, but I do get to see how it operates. Honestly, it was inspiring.…

Donate Now 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…

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…

With our state exam just more than a week away, I taught my last Saturday NJ ASK prep program yesterday, as we have our alternate route next Saturday, so I won’t be able to do it then. Anyway, Saturday teaching has been simultaneously the best and worst thing this year. The reason I love Saturdays…

Newark is a tale of two cities….. for that matter, so is my classroom. This past week, I’d have to say that things with most kids are really picking up, but a few, I’ve just HAD it with. To the point where I’d probably have a party if they transferred. Anyway, yesterday, we went to…

This is a pretty useless post but I’m just really frustrated. Tomorrow is the Mid-Atlantic Summit– an event where 4 or 5 regions come together and there are a whole bunch of workshops and all. In a way, it’s sort of a mini-reunion of all the people you met at Institute. And of course, I…

Much of the last few weeks have been spent sick… sometimes in school, nevertheless. It really is detrimental cause all of a sudden all these things like investing your kids, creating a classroom culture take a backseat to just physically getting through the day. I lost my voice a few weeks back and that coincided…

This post isn’t so much about the classroom as it is on the general experience of teaching. It occurred to me recently why teaching is so difficult. After all, your actual working hours are kinda light. Even now, as I’m doing an extra hour a day of after-school, I’m only working 7 and a half…

Well, this week was undoubtedly my best ever. Four reasons stand out… 1) I found an investment strategy that I buy into. I call my class the “class of 2017″. That’s when they will graduate college. It’s an easy reference and doesn’t require a whole crazy setup. It’s easy to remind them that what they…

Crazy first day back. The first thing– Abby, probably my favorite student, tells me she’s transferring to a boarding school in Africa (she’s native African). I thought she’s just messing with me, but over the course of the day, I realized she’s serious. She’s seriously one of the kids who keeps me going. Always respectful…

So, I promise not to make this a blog of my life, but I just felt the need to make one post that isn’t entirely related to teaching. To be fair, a lot of this break has been devoted to teaching. I’ve spent a lot of time making up worksheets for NJ ASK practice given…

Well, as my first few months wrap up, I must say things have been going interestingly lately. The highlights and downfalls (of course, names are anonymous– I’m not even sure if I’m being consistent between post entries) Beth– this is every teacher’s dream student– she’s real cool and everyone looks up to her, but she…

So, I just got off the phone with Tammy’s mother. It turns out Tammy is leaving the school district by the end of the year. Now, my school has incredible turnover. This is the 2nd student who is transferring out during the school year itself, excluding the transfers out during the summer. And of course,…

So, time for an update, I guess. It’s the middle of thanksgiving break, and I left a sour taste in some of my students’ mouths by demanding that i see the parents of 5 of them right before break. The talking has picked up in my higher class and it was time to crack down…

So, we just had a 10 day break. My room got a complete makeover. I have white boards up now, which by the way is a million times better than chalk board. Everything is covered with deep blue paper, and nice borders. Space is abundant in my room, I’ve figured out how to put all…

Well, today was the longest I’ve ever been at school– 9:30pm. Ms. G helped me organize it cause people from the state are coming in tomorrow. It seriously has an amazing look to it– well, the parts of it that we went over. But like, I’m starting to see the benefits of being organized. It’s…

Something like above quote was stated by the superintendent of our district during the new teacher’s orientation. This week definitely wasn’t perfect, but I’m starting to see some amazing transformations with a few kids– they’re all the very quiet, very reserved kids who do exactly what you say, even if their ability isn’t extremely high.…

Not much to write here– I had a day of Professional Development today. In other words, you realize in 5 minutes that the meeting won’t do anything for you, and you grade papers and read The Economist all day… except for the impromptu presentation I gave on graphing calculators (followed of course by half the…