The Insanity of Balancing
It is not lost on me that the first two most beautiful, sparklingly sunny days of summer actually didn’t come until August 23rd and 24th of this year. It’s not lost on me because I like to spot irony. Those were the first two days of school at [...]
Notes From the First Two Days
I’m teaching all 9th graders. Before balancing, my classes are at 42 students. Classes won’t be balanced for two weeks. Let me say that again, I have 42 9th graders in a small classroom. It’s cool though, they wrote poetry today-EVERY SINGLE [...]
Little Differences in Preparation
My buddy turned 30 on Saturday, and he had a party. He teaches in one of the most affluent school districts in the Bay Area. I teach in one of the poorest. When we get together, I love listening to his unbelievable stories. They are so crazy I [...]
Preparing for the Haters
High School starts in my district next week. I’m preparing myself in a variety of ways. I’m reading up on a lot of education theory and studies (Keeping Track by Jeannie Oakes is one I’m halfway through), I’m looking over unit plans here on [...]
My Boy Arthur, Who Can’t Pass Algebra
I had this kid in my 10th grade “Strategic” class, we’ll call him Arthur. Strategic is what we call sheltered at my school, at your school it’s probably just as strategically named to try to unsuccessfully hide from the students the fact [...]
Should I Be Allowed to Beat My Students With an Enormous Wooden Paddle?
I just read an article "To Paddle or Not to Paddle Students" on CNN. This is crazy, and yes, this article was just written today, in the year 2010. Over 200,000 kids were BEAT last year in the United States of America because they misbehaved in [...]
Commenting on Racism
I play in a Fijian soccer league. The league has a rule that each team can field 4 non-Fijians per game. So I am one of the four, the other seven are Fijian, the five guys on the bench are Fijian, the coaches are Fijian, and all of the fans lined up [...]
Movie Night in My Community
A counselor at my school is very deliberate about interacting in the community when he isn’t at work. For example, every December, he takes his wife and two kids to the mall in the city where we work to do their Christmas shopping. He could just [...]
I Teach For America Too
Photography by Jeremy Schulz Teach for America: Nothing but a Resume Builder? I recently read an article about Teach for America, a program that recruits the best and brightest our nation has to offer from schools like Harvard, and put them in [...]
Latino Boys in the Red White and Blue
Here’s a fun fact many people don’t realize: In California, if you are a Latino male anywhere from age 12 – 35, you can’t wear a shirt that is red. Actually, you can’t really wear a blue shirt either. To tell you the exact truth, wearing a [...]
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