Donate Now Today I welcomed a group of incoming 6th graders to my school. I’m teaching a two week math and science camp and after a year of hormones from my middle schoolers who are high-school aged (I had a 17 year old in the 8th grade…), I find 5th graders cute and refreshing. These…

Donate Now Here’s a new memory for my imaginary first year of teaching treasure chest: a fellow teacher called me unpatriotic today! I was so wrong in assuming that the patriotic police ceased to exit when Bush left office. But I digress… We were having a planning meeting for the school assembly, and a teacher…

Now that the test that shall no longer be named is over, my kids love me again. They were all really into drawing me pictures this week. And now I’m running out of room in my class to post their masterpieces. It’s adorable. And the project I have them working on, in which they’re planning…

The idea of going through another TAKS season is vomit-inducing. I went running for the first time in three months yesterday, and it was a nice way to celebrate the end of a very stressful and unhealthy period in my life (candy drawer, I am locking you!). And today I started my first long-term project…

Everything I’ve worked toward this year comes down to this upcoming week. All of my students are taking the TAKS test. I spent most of March and April in a frenzied panic, cramming information down my kids throat and drilling the hell out of them, but at this point I’m finally calm. I know I…

Let’s be honest, the real reason I like teaching is my ridiculous interactions with the kids. A few highlights from the last week: -S having a conversation with the characters in the book “Muppetts Go to Manhattan” during Drop Everything and Read time: “No Miss Piggy, don’t eat that.” and “Kermit, what are you doing…

My 8th graders are taking their math TAKS test next week. Gross. Yucky. I can’t wait till this is over and I’m on a cruise. I’ve never wanted to go on a cruise, it seems like a lame way to travel, but I bought a car this summer and it came with a free one.…

A few weeks ago, my fellow CM and I decided to discuss sexual harassment and bullying with the kids. After our lecture, which I believed to be effective, R shouted out “I’m sorry girls for everything, the whole class is sexy! MISS, you’re sexy too!” I don’t think he got it. And this is not…

April is upon us (not to mention a week of vacation next week), and I’m ready for my TAKS rant. Please ignore any praise I gave the test before, I’m taking it back. Maybe I’m a little wound up, with the test just around the corner, but how would you feel if your administration was…

If you asked me to choose my favorite thing about teaching, it would definitely not be breaking up fights. But I do it. A lot. Today it was another girl fight, my personal favorite. It happened across the hall, as the substitute teacher just stood there gawking. One of my kids was smart enough to…

“I heard a certain seventh grader smoked weed in Spanish class last week.” “WELL, I heard five students were pregnant!” “I once had a student who was a prostitute…” This was the conversation that dominated our faculty meeting today. Middle School is full of drama, way more drama than you might imagine. I opened my…

Did you know that in a nest of termites, the eggs all hatch at the same time? It’s this crazy natural phenomenon. How do I know? Hundreds of termites hatched at the same time, in my friend’s classroom across the hall. In the middle of my lesson on the rock cycle, she came in yelling…

Here’s a funny way to teach 2-step equations. My kids loved it today and it was pretty hilarious. See below: 3x + 4=16 Class, do you see that problem on the board? Well, I have a secret to tell you. I think that X is looking mighty fine today and I want to take him…

The TAKS test is in about 10 weeks. TAKS, or the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, is our state’s high stakes test (according to No Child Left Behind all states have them). The test haunts my dreams, and I swear its name is whispered by the air vents in my classroom. Everywhere I turn,…

In the last few days I used my talents as a teacher to break up not one, but multiple fights in my classroom. I can understand why so many people are hesitant to go into a career in education–they fail to tell you on the job description you’re also a baby sitter and a police…

Are there any corps members out there who are excited for school to begin this week? If so, I would like to meet you and ask you for some of that inspiration…I don’t want to go!!!! It’s almost cruel to get two weeks off, I got used to it. That, coupled with a severe case…

I wonder if there are any other science teachers out there, who are teaching units on space, and who now have to come up with PC answers to questions about aliens, God and the end of the world. Samples of things I heard today: “MISS! My aunt told me she saw aliens last night, and…

I was really able to reflect over Thanksgiving break, about how lucky I am to have this opportunity right now. I’ve been a full-fledged teacher for about three months now, and I can’t imagine a job harder than this one. I also can’t imagine what my life would be like if I hadn’t met my…

I wish I could spend several weeks telling the kids all I’d learned from my time interning with an environmental advocacy organization so that they could apply the things from science to the real world (and maybe impress them enough so they’d finish their homework…). Alas, I had half an hour to introduce and wrap…

“MISS, who are you voting for?” has been the question plaguing me for the last few weeks. Maintaining the mystery of who I’m voting for (or really who I voted for, today is November 5th) , coupled with the fact that HISD forbids teachers from sharing their political beliefs (or face serious consequences) obviously prevented…

Are you familiar with the angry cartoon character, the one that reaches his boiling point and his face turns red and steam comes out of his ears? I was that cartoon character today, I’m sure there was steam involved too. I won’t go into details, but I raised my voice for the first time with…

I left the kids alone with a sub yesterday, for the first time, since I had to attend a mandatory TELPAS training (it’s an exam that measures ELL students’ english proficiency in reading/writing/listening/speaking), and when I returned today my usually wonderful kids were OUT OF CONTROL. It made me want to both never leave them…

Middle Schoolers: Invite you to their quinceaneras and into their communities, making you feel oh-so-special and giving you something really fun to do on a Saturday night. Steal pushpins off your wall to scratch their name into their hands. Ick. Tell you they want to throw parties on the electron cloud, with their negatively charged…

“Miss, what if you die in the hurricane?” Me-”Do you want me to die in the hurricane?” Students- “NO! You’re a good teacher and we’d miss you!” Every bad day I have from now I’ll just think of this. Now, do I need to evacuate because of the hurricane? Are people just going crazy because…

Looking back on my entire teaching experience, Institute and now (it’s limited, I know), I’ve noticed that some things never change in the world of teaching…mostly the ups and downs. For example, I can go from having such a rush because I’ve just taught a student who can’t tell the difference between subtracting and multiplying…