Be confident. Work hard. 24/7. Have fun. Be honest with yourself. Be nice. Stay close to your students. Reflect daily. Use data, not your feelings. Focus on the achievement gap. Tackle it. Work as part of a team. Invest in students and parents. Be humble. Learn. Remember that you’re a change agent. These were just…

I’ve been sort of frantic the last few days, preparing for my impending move some 1,200 miles across the country. Packing becomes the easy part when I look at the tall stack of TFA pre-institute materials and Praxis study guides that I should probably be focusing even more of my time & energy on. I’ve…

“What Teachers Make” by Taylor Mali

“She felt her stomach jump again at the thought of having her own students… She just couldn’t believe that a few months after graduation, she would be responsible for real children.” -Aurora, in The Ms. Lora Story I’ve been cooking this post for a while now. During the TFA final interview, we each needed to…

My TFA acceptance has buoyed me for the past week. I am so proud to be an incoming corps member (CM) and so eager to teach science, especially in South Louisiana/SLA. I had a call with my region’s Program Coordinator shortly after I committed last week and she sounded so positive. I also attended a…

“I am dedicated to the vision that one day, all children in this nation will have the opportunity to attain an excellent education. I commit two years to Teach For America and to the school in which I am placed.” I am very pleased to join the 2010 Teach for America Corps in South Louisiana…

So the PRAXIS really kind of sucked. I mean, it sucked in all the ways that spending four hours of a Saturday taking a standardized test sucks, but also I had a terrible time with the PLT. Mostly in ways that were my own fault, because I took WAY too long on the first few…

Of late, in preparation for having to teach science like I actually know something about it, I’ve been reading popular science books. Probably I should just sit down with a fifth grade textbook or a GED prep book, but this is SO much more fun and interesting. I’m currently working my way through Timothy Ferris’s…

Oh, hell.   Well, that could have gone better.

So I admit, I’ve been feeling bit a bit lonely and unloved out here in cyberspace. And then I just now realized (ie stumbled onto the comment moderation page) that *I* have to approve all the comments — they don’t just magically appear. Who knew? So thanks for reading & commenting, everybody. Sorry it took…