Yo Mista!

What am I thankful for? I imagine elementary school teachers across the country are getting their students to answer that question this Thanksgiving holiday week. My answer to this question never changed from year-to-year: I am thankful for my family, my house, my friends, school, food, money, and video games. Pretty standard. Of course, I wasn't really thankful for my family, but I couldn't really say that without consequences. It would be quite awkward to be the only second grader in class who didn't put family on his "What am I thankful for" list. I knew better. I was aware of the things that raised flags in the eyes of others. And so every year, I announced to the world that I was thankful for my mother and father with a big smile on my face. No Mrs. Robinson, those aren't fingernail gouges on my arm. Surely you're mistaken. I just fell into some bushes playing basketball outside.   What an idiot , I thought. You can't play basketball at my h...

Thomas Edison once said, " I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."   I'm going to be honest: it's only midway through November and I think my school is on the verge of falling apart. Maybe that's an exaggeration, but it seems as if we're trying to go out of our way to make things more complicated, pointless, and ultimately, not fun . School should be a fun place for teachers and students. As it is being run right now, it is not. Over the past week, I've spent a considerable amount of time during my off-periods wondering what the hell happened. Three years ago, this place started with such a great culture and attitude. That feels like a long time ago. There's a long list of things that have been eating away at me and everyday, something new gets added on. Decisions are being made without foresight. Things that I thought would obviously be implemented have not been implemented. I thought we would have figured out at ...

A recent study finds 8th grade math and science students perform better on tests when their teachers spend more class time lecturing rather than providing group-work or other problem-solving activities. More details about the article and study can be found here . Well, this is not a shock. Factual material (and in particular, foundational material) is best presented through a lecture, especially with the content that's currently taught in middle-school math and science. Additionally, these students weren't asked to apply the concepts they were taught, i.e. the research was completely based on the results of a standardized test. I guess this is breaking news to some people: if you desperately want students to pass a test, teach to the test. In other shocking news, hard-working teachers aren't paid enough.

"So like, what do you win?" a student in my class pessimistically asked last week. My jaw fell to the floor. I was speechless. Some students raised their eyebrows, others snickered, and a few patiently waited for my witty comeback. Mista always has a witty comeback , they think. Any student in my class will tell you that it's damn near impossible to get the last word with me. But I was stupefied. This kid got me. Of course, I was speechless because I had just finished explaining the concept of raising money for charity. More specifically, I was explaining why most of the male staff and some male students were growing moustaches for the month of November (i.e. Movember ). I had pulled up our team page on the SMARTBoard and was going through all the contributions people had made from around the world. It was a proud moment for me. Well, until the "what do you win?" question. What the fuck do you mean, what do you win? Thank goodness for brain-to-mouth filt...

I'm twenty-six years old and in my third year of teaching. I can hardly say I know anything about the profession or make broad generalizations about my student population. It's very tempting to try one-size fits all strategies and assume they will work for everyone all of the time. Lately, my teacher colleagues and I has been trying to figure out why our students as a whole do shit throughout the semester, and then expect a "make-up packet" at the end of the semester that will save them from failing the course. Every semester, shit tons of students (most of whom I haven't seen all semester in school) decide to show up to class and ask if there's anything they can do. "Seriously? Like, what do you mean, if there's anything you can do?" I ask. "You know, like, make-up the work yo."  Exhibit A : My response. FYI-I do eventually stop laughing. Since the beginning, I've instituted a no make-up work policy. Well, technically I...