It’s April, and there is so much talk of next year. It’s on my mind, too, as I pray for a second take with kindergarten  (so much I’d like to try to do again, improve on), yearn for the supposed so-much-betterness of the second year, and mostly wonder, wonder, wonder what’s in store. It seems like…

Aaaaaand we’re back! Why hello there, readers. Now in the new year and new semester, my school-world is rife with resolutions. In my personal and professional life I’m working, now, on pursuing happiness, finding the j-factor, living a little – whatever you want to call it. And while some of my students still think that the…

“Hey, this is fun!” Straight from the mouth of one of my kiddos, while we were working after school on writing our names with play-doh. I felt a wave of contentment with my job and my life for that moment and thought there was no place I’d rather be than at my kidney-shaped table after…

All day long with the alphabet song in her head, sometimes the alphabet sound song, too, repeating in the awful voice used for children’s music, unnaturally pitched and sing-songy: a for apple, a-a-a. Afternoons sharpening pencils and picking up paper and cleaning juice they shouldn’t have had in the room anyway off the floor. Afternoon…

The title of this post comes straight from the mouth of one of my most troubled and troublesome kindergarteners. “What’s that, you say, loyal reader?” (I know there’s only about one of you!) “Weren’t you just switched to third grade, Miss O?” Why yes. And now I’ve switched again. As I take a break from…

Last week, “upheaval” was one of our vocab words. This week, I teach a new grade, with 32 new kids, a new classroom (in a different building), new curriculum, etc. After teaching middle schoolers and high schoolers in various programs and then 5th graders for a week, third grade feels like a different planet when…

Since my own public school education is not so far back in my memory, I can’t help but think, sometimes, of my old teachers in my current position. Of course, there is something unique about TFA Institute that can’t compare to a regular school year teacher’s life, but stil… I wonder what our kids think…

Institute, Week 2 This week we have KIDS! which is the best thing in the world. My students are 7th graders in summer school because they failed or performed poorly in math, reading or both. This week has been full of diagnostic assessments, and many – but not all – of the students are definitely…