Day 154: Teaching is often an exercise in delayed gratification. You might struggle with a child for months, only to have him or her come around in June and say, “Thank you.” Given that, when the wins are big and obvious and staring you in the face, you embrace them. IEP meetings are not typically tons…
read more »Quick blog post to brag about my Physics students and to grovel on the ground and beg you to vote for them. I think I mentioned before that they are in the top ten in the nationwide Raytheon competition. Voting is live to see who wins the fame and the fortune (and by fortune I…
read more »Day 153: Does compliance lead to buy-in, or is compliance the best it gets? Tuesday, we did a homeroom reset. Silent entrance, silent to desks, silent to the morning meeting circle. First warning = three minutes of recess. Second = ten minutes, plus sit in a fourth grade room. We got to the circle quickly and…
read more »Day 152: My homeroom has been, on the whole, trending downward for months. They enter classrooms like they’re entering a party. They fail, consistently, to quiet down when asked. They throw balls around the room like it’s recess. For a while now, I’ve been letting a lot slide. Science class is going well, and giving certain…
read more »After a disappointing past couple weeks, my first group of final exams are in (Seniors take their exams a week earlier than everyone else) and as the last question on both my Physics and Physical Science exams, I asked the students this: Write at least three paragraphs describing what you think is the most IMPORTANT…
read more »Day 150: Often, when I finally remember on Sunday that I haven’t written about Friday yet, I can only remember a blur of exhaustion and frustration and please let me finish this day and get to the bar as fast as I can. As usual, I don’t remember many details. However, the ones I do remember…
read more »Day 150: First of all, Happy Day #150 to me! Today wasn’t ideal. Thursdays always suck, thanks to the lack of a prep period to decompress. This one felt particularly arduous because I had to teach a mediocre lesson three times. I knew it wasn’t great when I taught it yesterday; it had too many notes,…
read more »Day 149: Fourth period today was deeply unsatisfying, for two reasons. First, it was pretty much the most boring lesson I have taught all year. The Do Now was too complicated. There were too many guided notes. The guided practice was silent and low rigor. About 20 minutes in, I realized my kids hadn’t been released,…
read more »7th Grader: “Is that phone a 3G or a 4G?” Me: “It’s a zero-G.” 7: “Are you serious!?!” My kids are always concerned about my lack of coolness and technology. They normally look at me with a mix pitying looks and judgement when they see my old phone, but I think I completely blew their…
read more »Day 148: It’s teacher appreciation week, which is, all told, a pretty sweet week. Yesterday, one of our parents made a ton of Ethopian food, including beef and split lentils, and left a huge spread in the teacher’s lounge. I may or may not have had thirds. And I may or may not have had croissants…
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