He rarely smiles. He rarely speaks. His rakish suits and power ties seem to imply a need for attention and respect. And people suspect he’s reading a book on how to teach. He’s our assistant principal. He’s not my evaluator, but the stories have run throughout the building. When observing teachers he would always say that [...]

The district agreed to help us bring down class sizes for freshmen and sophomores from 31-32 to 28, which would be great. This would mean a lowering of students per day of 15-20 students for some of the English teachers. 140 students a day sounds much better to me than 160. Just for perspective, when [...]

This morning, during finals mind you, the teaching staff was mandated to attend a staff meeting concluding 15 minutes prior to the first final of the day. We sat down, already grumpy since our time is crunched because of a special schedule we use for finals week, and we received a 20 minute lecture about [...]

I stumbled upon a piece of information from a fellow colleague that our finals schedule may be changed despite finals being a couple weeks away. I guess a meeting for department heads is scheduled for tomorrow to discuss the issue. The rationale for the change is that “a few” teachers are not following the schedule [...]

Ok, before you read this post, I’m going to admit freely that this issue is one which brings out my snarky and biased side. A writer with the News Tribune advocates higher pay for math and science teachers to lure better and new teachers to the profession. No other content area would receive the extra [...]

Today is a day I love The Onion! Check this out.

Will Rick in the second row actually bring in his homework? Will I see an administrator in my area of the building? Will student costumes be viewed as humorous instead of possible dress code violations? Trick or treat!

Ok. I can admit it. I'm a cynical and sarcastic high school teacher at times. To prove this, I have prepared all of my snarky answers, which I can't say, but would absolutely love to do so from time to time: Student:''What's my grade?'' Me: ''Who cares? If you don't know, it's not that important to you. I want you to learn, not try to acquire ...