On Friday, January 11 at 12:59 PM, my life was irreversibly changed. My son Ben — all 10 pounds, 4 ounces, and 22 inches of him — joined our family. I cannot describe the feeling of seeing him for the first time. And I cannot express enough the gratitude for my wife who carried him…

Happy New Year!  Welcome 2013! As the rest of the world celebrates the start of a new year, with fresh starts, new goals, and bigger plans, we teachers are nearing a yearly milestone as well… The Middle! While I may have participated in ringing in 2013 with the rest of the working world, the quick…

I’ve taken a decidedly more strident tone as of late, so I want to spend some time examining why this is so.  It’s not that TFA or education reform as a whole has changed much in the last couple of years, but my analysis of it certainly has.  The longer I spend in the classroom,…

The 2012-2013 is the second year of implementation for the STAAR end-of-course exams, previously complained-about on this site here. For those of you who are not teaching in the once proud nation of Texas(1), you may not know about our testapalooza for our high schoolers, but here was the original plan in its inception: All…

In previous posts, I have danced around possibilities of what a service-oriented TFA might look like.  My complaints at this point are: TFA is no longer addressing teaching shortages as initially envisioned. Parachuting mostly white 22-year-olds into communities they don’t know working a job they are not adequately prepared for is not the best way…

I’ve spent the better part of the last week stuffing myself with tamales(1) and teeth-ruining candies(2).  This is the proper time to reflect on the holiday season. I got to play with my school’s band during their holiday concert!  It was the first time in 10 years I had picked up a euphonium and boy…

In my last post, I explained that I no longer believe TFA to be improving the educational landscape of my city for the better.  My chief complaint is the organization’s courtship of private philanthropists whose primary objective is to weaken public schools and strengthen charter schools. A huge part of what rankles me about TFA…

I started this blog over a year ago with a couple of posts about why I joined.  The short versions of those two posts are: So, in short, the people working in this organization are super organized and professional and are tirelessly working to make my city’s educational landscape better.  I’m happy to be a…

Wow, it’s been about half a year since my last blog post, and since I’ve joined Teach For America. And no kidding: I’ve really been that busy with teaching. Swamped. I am thoroughly convinced that teachers have the hardest job in the world. And not just because of the insane long hours (which is reason…