I am one of those people who loves to plan things out….months in advance. So I have to admit it has been driving me crazy going weeks without TFA giving me something to do to prepare! Sadly, I was actually excited when I got the email last week telling me to get fingerprinted, sign a…

A few random thoughts as I impatiently wait for the last 50-some minutes of grad class to wind down… -According to I., I look just like Taylor Swift.  He informed me of this last week, I think in the middle of a social studies lesson. To provide some clarifying details:  I have short, straight brown…

1.  6th graders are too old for recess. 2.  Token economies aren’t worth the annoyance. 3.  We’ve moved past the “stealing from the teacher” phase of the year. 4.  (Insert coworker’s name) can’t actually be THAT difficult to work with. 5.  Since our extremely tense behavior meeting with A.’s dad, the school director, the cultural…

One of the weirdest parts of teaching sixth grade is constantly observing- and sometimes partially reliving- the awkwardness of the middle school years. The gender-divided, cooties-concerned 11-year-olds who entered my classroom in September are no more.  I still have kids who span the age range of 11-13 (and one new guy who might be 14…

I am so far behind in updating this blog, and since I’m sitting in hour 3 of mind-numbing night grad class, I think it’s the perfect time to finally update it.  Just one more reason why I completely fail at TFA-mandated grad school.  Another reason being, I just dropped the other night class I’m supposed…

Since I joined TFA, I’m guessing most of my friends and family members have become well acquainted with my typical answers to the questions, “So, how are things going?” or “How’s your class doing this week?”  I’ve become pretty used to giving those answers, too.  It’s funny (but actually kinda sad) how accustomed you can…

Best question I’ve ever asked on a test:  Of all the civilizations we’ve learned about so far this year, which would you most want to have lived in, and why? I. picked Egypt:  ”They have some jars for the mummification. For guts to put in.” A. chose hominids (early humans) although she doesn’t “want to…

Almost all of my kids are obsessed with soccer and completely worship the school’s soccer coach.  Although our school doesn’t have sports teams, about half of the kids are allowed to have soccer practice during the school day instead of regular gym class.  They also play in a local league with the same coach. Though…

After four years of constantly applying to internships, I felt like I had the resume thing down.  But now I’m in the process of updating my resume so that I can look for a summer job.  Specifically, I’m trying to fill in the job description under “Teach for America, St. Paul, MN” and I’m drawing…

So here’s how it goes: 1) I manage to get one tiny classroom thing figured out and I feel confident about it being somewhat effective. 2) I suddenly think of 20+ other things that I’m completely failing at. 3) I start tackling these newly recognized problems. 4) The pattern repeats. 5) Eventually something that I…