Day 177: Today, I finally told my kids I was leaving. To prepare, I did two things. First, I made brownies. I figured if my kids were going to take it poorly, at least they’d have brownies. Second, I made a slide explaining the new city I would be teaching in – Lawrence, Massachusetts – and…

Day 176: My last Monday at my school is over. It felt, unsurprisingly, like pretty much any other Monday. Kids riled up in the morning, having completely forgotten how to be focused during Morning Meeting. The joys of recess and lunch duty. The inability of my homeroom to get into class in an orderly fashion, followed…

Day 175: As I’ve explained before, I have my students do a call and response chant before every quiz and test. I yell “work hard” and they respond “get smart.” I wonder if they actually remember this is supposed to remind them about the value of persistence and growth mindset, or if they just like yelling…

Day 174: When we last left our brave hero, he was up too late on Wednesday writing a Science final. We find him now, Thursday morning, desperately trying to finish said final, and then print it before first period. Never a dull moment. As usual, Thursday was a long day. Given the last-minute nature of the…

Day 173: So, as it turns out, students near the end of the year struggle to handle Trashketball. I suppose I should’ve guessed that one. My homeroom got through a whopping six rounds; 10-12 is typical. Oops. I have a very bad TFA admission to make. Wednesday night, once I was finally done with grad school,…

Day 172: This is the first time I’m two days late to write about Tuesday. My brain is oatmeal. If I were a runner, this would be the point where you’re nearly at the end of a marathon, muscles desperately craving oxygen. I do remember one happy moment. NM was in my room for lunch, as…

Day 171: Finals review packets aren’t thrilling, but they’re effective. Three classes walked in and, for the most part, efficiently made their way through nine months of science. Three days until the final, and we’ve got plenty of work to do. I told a student to shut up today. It was the end of fourth period…

Day 170: So, sometimes, your normal day runs into an obstacle or two. Friday was one of those days. We have three printers at school. Sometimes, one breaks. Friday, all three broke. This left me without a printer on a day when all of my classes depended on my ability to print quizzes and final exam…

Day 169: The long, tiring days typically are not “wins.” And yet, today, 12 days from the finish line, the wins kept coming. First and second period’s double block was listless to say the least, as is typical for that class. However, a late bit of pumping the kids up about how fast we’d been able…

Day 168: I know it’s nearly all over when, one day later, I can honestly remember NOTHING that happened in class yesterday. I can only assume that means neither anything bad nor anything particularly wonderful happened. Class itself was pretty average. I gritted my way through a pair of teacher-directed lessons, getting by on management more…