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.…

Since the new semester started three weeks ago, I’ve gotten about 8 new students. They’re always kids that I recognize from other classes and they’d always show up one at a time, a new student here, a new student there. I had no idea where these students were coming from or why they were suddenly…

“It’s always darkest before the dawn.” Proverbial wisdom has been ringing through my head recently (primarily in the form of Florence & the Machine). Not because I had experienced the hope of dawn, but because those words became all I had. I returned to some pre-fall break state of depression & angst. I felt like…

Note: This post was written a few weeks ago. I am publishing it for the sake of keeping up with my records & experiences, and perhaps, shedding light on the post I am about to write. It may give some valuable background and my headspace. My students accept behavior that is less than they deserve.…

Since the start of the new semester I’ve had the opportunity to reengage in one of my favorite parts of working at RMS: coaching. And, even better, this semester I’m getting to work with my one true love, socccer. As much fun as softball is, soccer is and always has been my forte. In high…