What I Should Have Told My Interviewers

I interviewed at KIPP NYC’s three elementary schools this weekend! My day began with a demo lesson for 1st grade science at KIPP Infinity, then proceeded into a whirlwind tour of the three schools where I interviewed with the teachers and school leader of each school. A staple of any school interview is a debrief…

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Making Failure Survivable

I made a tough decision yesterday, one I hope was the right one. I’ve been planning an inquiry-based unit on Astronomy since November, one I envisioned would culminate in an Astronomy Exhibition Night where all the students’ family and friends could come to school and see the work my students put into building models of…

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Ask the Experts

I have a new way of unit planning. It’s called, ask the experts. To plan my upcoming Astronomy unit, I emailed my mentor at the New Science Teacher Academy, I asked for help on the Nasa Educator Online Network, and I contacted KIPP Houston’s awesome STEM coordinator. In response, I was flooded with helpful activity…

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I’m Applying for Jobs

And it’s both exciting as well as nerve-wracking. I’ve thought a lot about what I would like to do, and I’m pretty content with the conclusions that I’ve made. The first conclusion is that I will continue working with students from low-income communities. I had considered temporarily moving to a private or magnet school that…

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I’m Rolling Gutterballs

I’m in the middle of grading my latest unit assessment right now and the trends of student achievement are demoralizing, to say the very least. Even objectives I have tutored extensively for have not “stuck” with my students. I think there are several lessons I can learn from this process. The first is that I…

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My Commitment for the School Year

Commitment is as much a mindset as it is a set of actions. So, this year, I am committing. I am committing to 100%. I commit to 100% of my students being 100% engaged, 100% of the time. This means that if I or another student am talking, all eyes are on the speaker, all…

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The Best Part about Teaching My Second Year…

…is the experience of building much stronger relationships with my students. Last year I was too stressed, and battling too much with my students for control, to build lasting relationships with the majority of my students. This year each of my students is an individual with quirks, interests, and dreams, and I’m getting to know…

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My Biggest Challenges as a Beginning Second Year Teacher

Right now I’m struggling with two things. One is pacing. The second is data. On the first challenge, my lessons are taking twice as long as I plan them to take. I think the next step is to sit down with someone, go through a lesson plan together, and then have them observe to see…

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