Posts Tagged ‘Blogs by Teachers’
Ending the Year on a Real Note
With all the pink slips going out this year, I can’t help but being reminded of a story my mentor told me about when she first began her teaching career. She received her first pink slip in the mail from our district “Postage Due.” That’s [...]
The Ambitions of Ghetto Youth: Too Small
You want to know the hardest thing about motivating students? It’s this: Every student out there wants to have one of three jobs. They want to be an actor, a musician, or an athlete. That’s it. Three jobs.I remember talking to a 9th grader [...]
Michael Shaughnessy interviews Matt Amaral of Teach4Real.com
Matthew, you have a web site called Teach4Real.com. What led you to set up this site?Well, first and foremost I wanted it to be a place for new teachers in our toughest schools. I have noticed an alarming trend in first year teachers at my [...]
Blame the Parents — I Do
Last year at Back-To-School-Night, I was pleasantly surprised to see both parents of a struggling student show up. The student was in my accelerated 9th grade class. She had an F, she didn’t do any homework, and always came into my classroom [...]
Let’s Make a Deal: How to Help Fading (and Failing) Students at the End of the Year
Everyone loves the end of the school year, especially the teachers and students. The parents, maybe not so much.The reason I like the end of the year so much is because it is such a clean break. At no point during the regular school year do I [...]
Giving Homework in Good Conscience
Two years ago I taught a “Strategic” 10th grade English class. “Strategic” is the No Child Left Behind term for students far below basic. Before that it was called “Sheltered.” A hundred different schools have a hundred different names [...]
The Myth of the After School Conversation
Six Tips on How to Have the Talk I love it. I love it love it love it when I hear people give their two cents about how we should handle our worst students in our worst public schools.Whether it is idle chat I overhear at Starbucks, or on a [...]
Teaching For Real
In the first month of my student-teaching, two kids got stabbed right outside of my classroom. The school went on lockdown. The police, fire department, and paramedics were called. My master teacher and I kept teaching as if it was normal. Actually, [...]