I’ve taken a decidedly more strident tone as of late, so I want to spend some time examining why this is so.  It’s not that TFA or education reform as a whole has changed much in the last couple of years, but my analysis of it certainly has.  The longer I spend in the classroom,…

The 2012-2013 is the second year of implementation for the STAAR end-of-course exams, previously complained-about on this site here. For those of you who are not teaching in the once proud nation of Texas(1), you may not know about our testapalooza for our high schoolers, but here was the original plan in its inception: All…

In previous posts, I have danced around possibilities of what a service-oriented TFA might look like.  My complaints at this point are: TFA is no longer addressing teaching shortages as initially envisioned. Parachuting mostly white 22-year-olds into communities they don’t know working a job they are not adequately prepared for is not the best way…

I’ve spent the better part of the last week stuffing myself with tamales(1) and teeth-ruining candies(2).  This is the proper time to reflect on the holiday season. I got to play with my school’s band during their holiday concert!  It was the first time in 10 years I had picked up a euphonium and boy…

In my last post, I explained that I no longer believe TFA to be improving the educational landscape of my city for the better.  My chief complaint is the organization’s courtship of private philanthropists whose primary objective is to weaken public schools and strengthen charter schools. A huge part of what rankles me about TFA…

I started this blog over a year ago with a couple of posts about why I joined.  The short versions of those two posts are: So, in short, the people working in this organization are super organized and professional and are tirelessly working to make my city’s educational landscape better.  I’m happy to be a…

In October, we lost one week of instructional time to administer district benchmarks, ostensibly to get a snapshot of progress made towards this year’s STAAR. Because so many students failed their STAAR tests last year, we(1) lost this week of instructional time due to students retaking exams, in some cases all 5 from last year.…

I just about hit the roof when this scene came up in Lincoln.  This is a great scene for history and Geometry classes. My warm-up question for this clip: what geometric axiom is Lincoln describing?

So, I’m in an unusual position as a TFA teacher: this is my third year of teaching(1) but my second year as a corps member.  This means I’m still getting classroom support which I would recommend really for all teachers for the first few years anyway. In San Antonio, Teach for America’s support model has…