“I’m so proud of y’all!” “WHOA, it’s such a good day!” “…Huh?” “…You haven’t said that to us in months.” I shower my students with energy & positivity & happiness — to the point where they sometimes think I’m a robot. After a good class, or even a good discussion to reach a solution to…

I’ve never been one to dwell things. In college, I was always the one who could shrug off a bad test score or an intramural loss and move on to the next one. It’s not that I didn’t care- to the contrary, it’s because I cared about so many different things that there was always…

My door handle has been acting up recently (it’s probably just as antsy for spring break as the rest of us). Just like the other moody things inside of my classroom (students only being one of them), it’s chosen to be wobbly and unreliable. On Tuesday, one of my football players would not stand for…

We have twenty-five class days until the EOI. My students will only step into my room twenty-five more times before they showcase their mathematical prowess on a test that unlocks their ability to graduate. It’s gametime. Today, I listened to my students drop some leadership knowledge during the Forward Thinking Program led by Sam Presti,…

Last night, I stepped up to the mic–for the very first time–and read some of my poetry. It felt exhilerating, nerve-wracking, and altogether liberating. After my performance, my roommate confessed that he had been skeptical about my poetic skills — and thankfully, I met that skepticism with a big “don’t-you-dare-doubt-me-you-jerk.” And here I am today,…

One of the best decisions I’ve made recently is to record myself reading a lot of the little easy readers for our listening center. After listening to the libritos so many times, the kids are way more apt to pick them up and start reading them by themselves…. and more apt to pick up other…

There are two main times that I blog: Either right after school or during my planning period in the afternoon. During the rest of the day, I’m preoccupied with sprinting marathons in an effort to do right by my kids and at night I’m too busy alternately trying to plan the next day while at…

A wants to go to Harvard. M wants to be a pilot. Another A wants to be the President of the United States. And me? I want to…get through until tomorrow. Over the past few months, as I encouraged my students to think about their long-term goals, I had come to a sad realization: I…

This is where it all began. The room where we all met for the first time — where the “incoming” was dropped from our titles and we officially became corps members. Where “Teach For America” changed from some abstract commitment to a living, breathing entity that would inspire and challenge and frustrate and encourage us.…

Raise your hand if you think I only teach geometry. If you’re reading this blog, you primarily hear about my trials & tribulations in timeblocks 1, 4, 5 and 6. But what about 7th? Why, yes — I do have a class during that time. Why, yes — I do teach something other than geometry.…