YAYYYYYYY! Words cannot describe how happy I am to be placed. I will be teaching…. MIDDLE school science, not high school as I previously thought, at sampson middle school in NC. I had a skype interview with the superintendent of clinton city schools and the principal of clinton city high; although they loved me there…
read more »Day 161: Friday morning, we took the entire sixth grade to the Upper School – the 7-12 campus where they’ll move after this year. We saw the recess yard, we met the principal, and we had a tour of the 7-8 building where they’ll have all of their classes. Two items stand out. First, we ran…
read more »My first year teaching, I counted many more failures than successes. The one story I clung to was when I helped a student gain admission to a summer robotics program at the Cooper Union. He was interested in engineering and I knew full well that the science education I was giving him was poor preparation,…
read more »Day 160: Thursday’s Theme: Win some, lose some, then try to get some rest. The sixth grade was presenting plays on Greek myths at various points throughout the morning. This means I got my third period class intermittently over a period of 10 minutes while I was trying to start class, and teach a really tricky…
read more »Wow its been a while. So last time I wrote I had interviewed during the first round. Unfortunately I wasn’t placed. Not because I wasn’t qualified but because TFA apparently told the principals who wanted to hire me “no”. Instead TFA wants to place me in south eastern NC into a school that has never…
read more »Day 159: Wednesday, I had one of the best classes with my homeroom all spring. Sort of. After three or four quick warnings, the Do Now was silent. Not sort of silent, but actually silent. When it came time for the food web demonstration – throwing balls of yarn around the room to make a big…
read more »I am continuing to enjoy the responses from my students’ final exam essay (see this page if you have no idea what I am talking about: http://vskk.teachforus.org/2013/05/13/life-lessons-in-science-class/ ) So I thought I would share a few more with you…maybe I went a little (okay… A LOT) overboard, though, so skip through them as you like : )…
read more »Day 158: I can’t think of any overarching theme for today. Classes went well, whether it was the “we need to shape up” speech I had to give 2nd period or the “we have a lot to celebrate” speech I gave 8th period. So, in the absence of any big theme, here’s a cute story. My…
read more »Day 157: Well, 157 days into the school year, I finally took a sick day. It turns out that being out at receptions and dinners and family time for an entire graduation weekend – for my youngest brother, now a Skidmore College graduate! – and subsequently missing your regularly scheduled catch-up-on-rest time, combined with some head-inflating…
read more »Day 156: Students might not know it, but they love routines. Structure and schedule helps them know what’s expected of them. It helps them focus on learning. So, what happens when you try to teach on a Friday, when Tuesday and Thursday were high-stakes tests, Wednesday was a half-day, and Thursday afternoon was mostly recess and…
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