Day 147: A wonderful thing happened on Monday. For months, my homeroom has been, let’s say, less than productive. We don’t have train wrecks, but we’re not exactly “moving with a mission.” This is due to a volatile mix of boys who can’t sit still, girls who are 12 going on 21, and a handful of…

Day 146: Something weird is going on. It’s Friday, and I don’t feel like my oatmeal has been replaced with gruel. I actually have the energy to write about Friday ON FRIDAY, as opposed to Sunday afternoon. I have energy in part because I got to hand out a quiz during two of my five periods…

Day 145: So, some of my classes aren’t operating as efficiently as they had a few months ago. I think that’s likely due to two factors. First, it’s May of their final year at the school, and senioritis is setting in. Second, in my teetering-on-the-edge-of-burned-out state, I’m not teaching with the same zeal I was three…

Day 144: Holy crap, it’s May! I find myself staring at my computer screen tonight, in shock that I’m done planning at 11. There are two glaring errors in my thinking here. One, why is being done at 11 a good thing? Two, why am I staring at my computer screen, trying to figure out what…

Day 143: In what appears to be an increasingly frequent theme, this post is late, and I really can’t remember too much of what happened Tuesday. I remember first and second period felt really, really easy – kids just doing the right thing, the whole time, and me feeling pretty good about everyone getting the content.…

Day 142: I’m going to admit this from the get-go: This is a whiny post. I had next-to-no teaching to do today. On Mondays, I teach twice. One of those two times was going to be spent at the back of my room with my principal, observing a teacher hoping to have my job next year.…

Day 141: Ladies and gentlemen, it’s field trip time. Specifically, Friday was our annual Opportunity Day, when classes go to visit various workplaces. I took my students to Google, where a friend of mine from college who works as a software engineer was set to host us. The short version: It was awesome. My kids were…

Day 140: Through TFA, I was able to have a scientist visit my class Thursday to speak about his job. He is an electrophysiologist with Amgen, so he spoke about taking cells and measuring their electric potential, so he knows when the drugs he’s testing are working. Specifically, he’s working on a drug to treat major…

Day 139: First week back from a break, and I’m already a full day behind on these posts? Yeesh. Not a great sign. At this point, I actually can’t really remember what happened Wednesday. My kids either made their kingdoms posters, or did a gallery walk to learn from other groups’ posters. More memorable is the…

Day 138: I hope visitors learn something when they come to my classroom. Selfishly, though, I kind of like having visitors because it helps me reflect on what’s going on. Case in point: 6D enters the room 2nd period. After the Do Now, I debrief very quickly, and then put kids into groups. Each group reads…