I can’t believe I’m moving to Tulsa in a week. I never thought I’d move to Tulsa. Even though I’ll be living there all summer for Institute, not having an apartment until July makes me feel like I’m in limbo. I won’t live in Louisiana anymore, but I won’t really live in Tulsa until I…
read more »Almost every teacher I know (well, at least the ones who like children) have a “take home” club. These are the kids who you love so much you would take them home in a heartbeat. I had one last year, and I have another couple this year. Let me tell you about one of them.…
read more »I’m getting fat. I’ve picked up a few awful habits in past months and lately have spent a lot of time dedicated to thinking of why I haven’t taken care of myself. Why I’m not on fire. Why these are statements, now, and not raging exclamations, or questions, at least. I’m disappointed in myself. My…
read more »Lately I’ve felt anything but consistent. Ecstatic? Sometimes. Crushed? Sometimes. Exhausted? A lot of times. It’s the end of year three and despite a mostly clean bedroom, despite the kaleidoscope sunlight dancing on my bed, despite long hair and big plans and so many things that push me up today I feel low. I’ve written…
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This weekend I was able to help administer tests to incoming scholars in order to determine if they would benefit from extra help during our summer school session. It made me see more than ever that educational inequity is plainly evident and is all around us. The literature says that students in high-need areas come…
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There has been a lot of debate for the past several years over whether or not to use “value added” data as a metric for evaluating teachers. Washington D.C. is already making 50% of a teacher’s evaluation dependent on their value added rating. I thought I’d weigh in on the debate, as I happen to…
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I’m addicted to running. I can’t imagine life without it. However, it is extremely time consuming. Each day I go out for a run that can be anywhere from 1 hour to 2.5 hours. Often, I think about how I could be using that more than 10 hours per week to complete other items on…
read more »This year’s April showers not only brought the budding of May flowers, but also many other awesome joys! First let’s admire the natural beauty of Spring… Pause and “smell” the… flowers: And now onto the highlights of an Awesome April: From successfully proctoring the PSSA to a group of 22 nervous 3rd graders, as well…
read more »Yes, I’m counting the days until the end of the year. Yes, I am all countdown/tested/retesting’d out. The kids are checked out as well. We need to get through the next week and we’re home free. We’ll get to finish our dinosaur unit and start on our physics unit. The kids are looking forward to…
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So, of course as part of Teach for America my number one focus is fighting educational inequity, though I can’t help but wonder…what will my students call me? My last name is long, and I mean LONG. It is 15 letters: Mojtabaeezamani (pronounced Moe-ch-ta-by-ee-za-ma-knee). It’s hard for most adults to master, so can I really…
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