Donate Now It’s half-way through week three of institute, and halfway through the entire experience. It’s also far enough into my summer school teaching experience that I’m starting to worry about the lack of progress my students are making. There are days that I think I really make a connection with my students, and then…

Donate Now Some of my students can’t read well. One of my best students claims he read two books this last year–in the eighth grade I think I was flying through two books a week. Meeting with my faculty advisor today, a veteran teacher at my summer placement school who had most of my students…

Yesterday, I felt like I’d hit rock bottom–my classroom management was inconsistent, my methods of instruction bored the students (and in retrospect I understand why a 30 block chart for students to fill in while I lectured would), and I lacked confidence. It’s not even my ego that was hurt. By not excelling in the…

I’ll be absolutely honest–today, day two of teaching, was AWFUL. I went into second period today with a false sense of confidence because of yesterday’s wonderful flow. Today, my kids took control of the class early on and it was almost impossible to get it back. None of the activities I had spent days crafting…

Today I’m officially a teacher, and despite my nerves I think it went well! I taught my first class today and I was surprised by how natural it felt to be standing in the front of the room going over my summer goals and classroom expectations. My kids are definitely characters, and there were definitely…

I have never had a longer week in my life. It’s Friday, finally, and all I can think about is the lesson planning I’ll have to do this weekend. I don’t think my lesson plans are anywhere close to where they need to be, and in just three days I have to deliver them to…

It’s only been two days since the official start of the Houston Institute and it feels as though I’ve been living at the infamous Moody Towers and learning about Teaching As Leadership, or TAL for short, for months. There is so much energy here–we have corps members from Houston, St. Louis, Denver, Rio Grande Valley,…