We completely ran out of paper at my school today, requiring me to ration the small stockpile I had throughout the day to make sure I had enough lesson packets for my students.  This is far from the first time this has happened. But when I saw the principal this morning he seemed completely puzzled…

It’s amazing how well-behaved and friendly students can be after a long winter break. Though I’d like to think they missed me terribly, it probably had more to do with the fact that I brought in a huge tray of my grandma’s leftover Christmas cookies. M: “Wait, is that fudge? I never knew I liked…

Ms. S, what is that? What IS that? What is that box? Why is that here? Why is it called a Crayonmaker? Can we do science now? ————————- Is it going to melt the crayons? Can we eat what it makes? Can I have a crayon? Can I? How about me? Not fair! ———————- It’s…

Last Monday, three of my kids were caught stealing from the Holiday gas station next to my school when they were supposed to be boarding their buses. On Tuesday, one of my kids was suspended for throwing a paperback book at me while I was teaching. On Wednesday and Thursday, everyone was back in action…

Here are some happy quotes, because this week has been rough. All are from answers to this week’s current events questions:   Who do you think is going to win the election?  Why? Obama because a lot of people are voting for him. Obama because I like his ideas better Barack Obama he won’t let…

Today was the last day of first quarter and the day before the Eid holiday.  The days leading up to and after Eid are probably the easiest to make small talk with absolutely any child in school, because they ALL want to tell you about their Eid plans.  Girls start coming to school early in…

I just read a post by another second year about how year 2 of TFA is just so much more “even.”  That captured my feelings about the past 6 weeks so perfectly that I finally worked up the motivation to write a decent-length post about Year 2 so far. Ridiculous things are still happening at…

After telling myself all weekend that I would avoid going into work, I drove to my school late last night to make copies for Monday morning.  (Like usual, several other CMs were there, too). I walked out to my car in the school parking lot about an hour later to find that someone had thrown…

I’m in D.C. this weekend at a Bellwether Education conference for teacher bloggers.  According to the current presenter, I should not annoy my readers by using “trolling” headlines like the one above.  Whoops. In all seriousness, I’ve been learning a ton of great stuff about blogging in general, and specifically for teachers who want to…

Hello again! I am writing to you now after a glorious week of meeting the amazing TFA Twin Cities Staff, my fellow 2012 Corps Members, the 2011 Corps Members, and some TFA alum in the area. I honestly believe that Induction was transformational and necessary for me. I don’t want to sound cheesy but Induction…