If one more person tells me that the solution to classroom management problems is to have my kids write a rap or let them analyze Tupac lyrics, I’m going to scream. If I had a dollar for every time a well-meaning friend told me that, I’d be a BILLIONAIRE. 1. I am a Teach For…

Being a teacher is expensive. You hear teachers whine about this all the time. I used to be like you. I would get so annoyed and just wish they would shut up. Now that I’m a teacher, I don’t really whine about it that much… Out loud, anyway. But the fact of the matter is,…

Everyone says things are better the second year. When things suck the first year, the pat response is, “It will get better. Year Two will be amazing.” But what if it’s not? What if Year Two makes Year One look like a vacation at Disney World? Anyone else out there experienced things getting WORSE instead…

This is going to sound a lot like a cliche teacher story. If you saw him walking down the street, you would never guess he was 13. He looks more like 30, with more tattoos than Kat Von D. He’s got a mean look on his face, but smiles and laughs so frequently that you…

Year one was like the blink of an eye. Of course at the time it didn’t feel so fast, but looking back, where did it go? Such a whirlwind of constant change, constantly being asked to do more with less, and constant uncertainty. I was lucky. I was one of those Teach For America teachers…

Note: A lot has changed since I last blogged. I find it difficult to blog here regularly, primarily because of privacy and confidentiality concerns. There is so much that we as teachers must be careful of, especially TFA teachers (who are so publicly representing one part of teaching) that sometimes it is just easier not…

Grade papers. Tracker update. Lesson plan. Fist pump.

Everything just keeps moving. I’m moving, too, but at a different speed than life these days. All I’ve wanted for about two months is to be caught up. That’s all. Just to be caught up. Not ahead. I’ve already realized that, as a teacher, I will never again in my life be ahead in anything.…

Today was an incredibly intense and emotional day for me. My journey feels so much deeper now. The school district in which I teach held a town hall meeting to address the progress of the school district in regaining accredidation. Each school was asked to send 15 representatives minimally, including students. I announced early in the…