Posts Tagged ‘high school’
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 [...]
Accepting the Fact That Nothing Will Ever Change
On the last day of school I was talking to a colleague of mine. I was telling her how even now, at the end of the year, I’m really looking forward to next year. She was delighted. She thought we should all be looking at every year in that light. [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Music—Probably the Worst Thing Out There
I was in Argentina for three weeks this year. My wife and I were checking into a hotel, and the young man helping us behind the counter was in his early twenties. There was a radio on behind him, and when a new song began to play, he smiled and [...]
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 [...]
The Elephant in the Classroom
When Are We Going to Talk About Poverty? I’m just going to say it, even though in our current educational climate it might at first seem to be unpopular — I just ask that you hear me out to the end:I am getting tired of hearing about Race [...]