I thought I’d post some updates on the goings on I’ve discussed previously. When my class created bulletin boards about the 1920s for The Great Gatsby, things did not go exactly as planned. Being literal-minded students, almost everyone basically created the exact same research piece–exactly as I had written up the assignment. A ...

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 [...]

Currently my school is looking to create an intervention system which exists during the school day. The requirements we must meet are: it must occur during the day, must not require any new cost, and must not require any new staff. Tough restrictions, but we have to think of something. So far, we have decided to [...]

I’m not teaching as well as I should want to right now. I’m just going to throw out my frustrations in a venting session and call it good. Catharsis time. 1. My classes are just too large! My smallest class has thirty kids, and all of my courses are literature and writing courses. I’m getting [...]

The union president and the Boss Lady approached me (since I'm on the union Exec. Board) this week about meeting to help ensure that teachers fulfill their supervision duties and work their contracted hours. I will admit that I usually feel somewhat negative when I hear the Boss Lady state her desire to make sure teachers work their hours because ...

I went to the high school state football championships this last weekend and watched a coach lose the title game for his team. His inability to adapt and poor play calling at critical moments (really, it was greed leading to opponent points) took the victory from the kids; the leader decided the outcome rather than allowing the kids the ...

This week the leadership team drove me to leave the school at exactly 3:15. Normally I don't get frustrated enough to feel like I had to escape the windowless confines of the school, but this time I'd had it and needed a release. First, we had a documented case of MRSA. A student in the school had it, but no one was notified until after the fact. ...