I have so much to say from the conferences I attended that it will most likely take multiple posts. AERA is a big conference for those of us who do anything that has to do with education research. The American Education Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting is huge. In fact, this year I decided that … Continue reading »
This is one of those stories that proves when you give love you get it back. That amazing things can happen from the smallest transactions. That teaching can blow your mind apart. I am still awash in shock, awe, and happiness that it all transpired. I posted months ago about a young man reading our … Continue reading »
The Teacher’s Tale Here begins the teacher’s tale: Once upon a time, in Bushwick, Brooklyn, There lived a sixth grader, the embodiment of sin And a first year teacher, who, innocent as a daisy, Had a confrontation with this child that about drove her crazy. First let me forewarn you that this tale is quite … Continue reading »
April is National Poetry Month! I wrote this after my first year teaching. I had my students each write a tale from a modern person modeled on The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. I was 28 years old, I had taught one year of 8th grade and was teaching high school for the first time, … Continue reading »
In my last class we discussed racial stereotypes and how stereotyping, racism, and discrimination affects various immigrant populations as well as the protagonist of our novel Girl in Translation. I have done this lesson in various forms many, many times and each time I learn something new about how my students see the world. I … Continue reading »
Peer Revision in my class has been lukewarm at best. I have tried everything to get the exercise to move out of the pocket of mediocrity where it seems lodged but to no avail. I have created checklists for students to complete on each others’ drafts, scavenger hunts of things to search for, warm/cool feedback … Continue reading »
Had the best teaching day today, so I have to share. My students writing is improving and I am proud of them. I don’t think I can take much credit for it because I feel they improved greatly during our Winter Term (when I didn’t teach them), but the essays I just graded were ions … Continue reading »
Dear anyone who reads this blog, I decided to start this blog to force myself to write what I know. My writing is not perfect, and it has taken me YEARS for me to make peace with that. It has taken a long, long time to summon the courage to write, to feel like I … Continue reading »
On the evening of the Oscars, my friend, a journalist for The New York Times, updated her status on Facebook and stated, “Wow, my facebook steam is full of haters tonight. Sigh.” I had noticed the same thing. My friends were posting things like “Anne Hathaway seems like a twat” and “Adele is fat as … Continue reading »
Teaching writing is like cracking a code. There are no magic tricks, no simple formulas, one suggestion/solution does not work for all students at any point. Finding your ability to write is a weird, twisted, and strange journey of self-discovery. I can teach paragraphing, sentence structure, thesis formation until I fall over (and I probably … Continue reading »
