Day 178: Today was the 6th grade moving up ceremony – aka graduation. Well, that would come at 2 pm. Beforehand was four hours to fill with about 30 minutes of stuff. Students had to write index cards explaining what they would be bringing with them to the 7th grade – think, “Such-and-such is bringing her…

Day 177: Today, I finally told my kids I was leaving. To prepare, I did two things. First, I made brownies. I figured if my kids were going to take it poorly, at least they’d have brownies. Second, I made a slide explaining the new city I would be teaching in – Lawrence, Massachusetts – and…

Well, I certainty started this blog with intentions of regular update that were fostered by my own habit of scouring the web for more information about the possibilities of this experience before I, well, experienced it. Oops. Failed that endeavor. I’m now officially a second year TFA corps member and I have found that something (or a…

Mental overload. Crunch time has never been so…. crunchy? My brain is fried and I still have a lot of lesson plans/ worksheets/ grading/ intervention mini lessons/ EVERYTHING IN THE WORLD to do. Now I understand why people drop out of TFA during institute. But i will stick it out because i am passionate and…

Day 176: My last Monday at my school is over. It felt, unsurprisingly, like pretty much any other Monday. Kids riled up in the morning, having completely forgotten how to be focused during Morning Meeting. The joys of recess and lunch duty. The inability of my homeroom to get into class in an orderly fashion, followed…

Wow my brain is tired. After a long day of planning I have completed 3 mini-lesson plans on class culture, a final draft for my math objective 1, a rough draft of math objective 3, numerous class decorations/posters, our final outline of our groups class culture plan, and…. idk what else!? I’m done for the…

Day 175: As I’ve explained before, I have my students do a call and response chant before every quiz and test. I yell “work hard” and they respond “get smart.” I wonder if they actually remember this is supposed to remind them about the value of persistence and growth mindset, or if they just like yelling…

Day 174: When we last left our brave hero, he was up too late on Wednesday writing a Science final. We find him now, Thursday morning, desperately trying to finish said final, and then print it before first period. Never a dull moment. As usual, Thursday was a long day. Given the last-minute nature of the…

Day 173: So, as it turns out, students near the end of the year struggle to handle Trashketball. I suppose I should’ve guessed that one. My homeroom got through a whopping six rounds; 10-12 is typical. Oops. I have a very bad TFA admission to make. Wednesday night, once I was finally done with grad school,…

And so begins my teaching experience. Today was the first day of summer school. I wasn’t really sure what to expect as I took my post at the office near the bus overhang. Students trickled in, some looked happy and replied “mornin” as I said good morning… but most looked down and kept walking. Maybe…