For the last two weeks, students in my class have explored multiple facets of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict.  They have analyzed sources for bias, posed intelligent questions, created metaphors for the conflict and developed solutions.  I admit that it is idealistic to assume that 8th graders can solve the world's problems in two ...

I ride past a freshly plowed empty field and see a large corrugated fence that advertises the latest neophyte tagging crew in sloppy, choppy letters. I don’t know what is the worst of these aesthetic crimes – the graffiti on the walls or the fact that it is so cheaply done, with such dull black letters that they blend in with the ...

The first few weeks for me are always the hardest.  After a rather sedentary summer, I find myself swept into motion.  Energetically, I run from place to play, smile, give compliments, offer instruction.  I fail to learn all the names and I know even fewer of their stories.  Yet, the toughest part is that I always recieve ...

After reading a recent blog, suggesting that teachers should self-censor and stay politically inactive, I feel compelled to write this blog.  Telling teachers to shut up and focus on their classrooms is like telling Martin Luther King Jr to shut up and preach or Schindler to shut up and run a factory.  The truth is that, if we want to ...

Over the last few weeks, we began drawing a mural that will span an entire building.  Students stay after school, recieving no money, no extra credit; just the satisfaction of excercising their creativity.  It's hard, at times, for me to step back and let them make mistakes.  I'm a recovering perfectionist.  Last week, for ...

I first read Catch 22 as a cynical high school student.  Something about the wry humor, the absurdity of the system and the feeling that I was surrounded by insanity resonated well with Mountain Ridge High.  I enjoyed the lively characters, though I never felt any real emotional connection to them.  So, I'm reading it now ten ...