‘For Teachers’ Archives
I Can’t Believe How Dangerous My Job Is
Last Friday, a fight broke out. A kid smacked the walkie-talkie out of the hand of our Assistant Principal. Our security guard and SRO confronted the kid (School Resource Officer, a cop assigned to our campus, we have two of them). The kid attacked [...]
Teaching: The Profession I Will Eventually Leave
“Teaching is not a profession. It is a never-ending entry-level vocation, divorced from foundational understandings of training, accountability, and advancement. If we are to enact meaningful reform, we must rescue teaching from its status as [...]
The Rotten Carrot of Teacher Incentives
With the fresh discussions of incentive-based teaching as the future of education, why is it we are surprised at the new statistics that are coming out? Study after study shows giving teachers incentives, like more money, doesn’t change student [...]
Education’s Dirty Little Secret
Imagine the following scenario. After two years of working at Bank of America, your boss tells you that it would be almost impossible for him to fire you. From here on out, your salary will crawl along a painfully slow path that never reaches [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 SchulzTeach 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 [...]
A Student Pulls Out a Knife: What Do You Do?
Photography by Jeremy SchulzSomething happened to a good friend of mine during the last week of school. He is an amazing teacher working in the ghetto, and this story is sadly one that isn’t too uncommon. We’ll call my friend Mr. [...]
What To Do With Former Students’ Friend Requests
With my first batch of seniors safely across the stage, I am now faced with the toughest call of my teaching career thus far:Do I friend former students?????In the last couple weeks, friend requests have been flooding into my facebook [...]