I’ve taught three classes so far in my lead-in to the reading of Night.  I had no idea what to expect when I began, but I am proud to say that most of my students seem genuinely engaged and excited for this unit.  A few highlights: -My students did K-W-L charts in which they wrote…

I realize I have not written on this blog for several months.  For those of you have been checking daily for updates and have continually come up empty, my sincerest apologies.  One of my New Years resolutions is to give this another try.  I still feel as though writing about my experience is valuable both…

I just finished my first week of teaching, so here are some notable parts of my week: 1. My school decided it was a good idea to hold two four-hour homeroom periods on the first and second days of school.  Not the greatest idea ever conceived, though it really wasn’t so bad and provided a…

Last week was new teacher orientation at Mariana Bracetti Academy, my placement school.  We learned some of the school’s policies and procedures and spent two days learning the principles of cooperative learning from a consultant from Kagan.  The school has fully bought into the idea of cooperative learning, which is differentiated from “group work” in…

I know it’s been a long hiatus since my last post, so for those of you who have been dying to read on, I have a few updates.  Last week I had my “bridge class” at Upenn, which basically gave some foundational teaching knowledge from the Penn program.  The entire week was basically one long,…

I’m sitting in the corps member workroom on the last day of Institute.  I can’t even believe it’s finally over.  Yesterday was my final day with the kids and today is pretty much about cleaning up the classroom and tying up loose ends.  It’s pretty much impossible to really start reflecting this early, which is…

The other day (I think it was actually last week) these words from President Obama were read to us and I found them to be inspirational.   Finally found the speech online: “During my visit to Dodge Elementary, I was able to speak with a few of the teachers about some of the challenges they’re…

Spent a good portion of today’s sessions sitting on top of a table next to the rejuvenation station as a last ditch effort to stay conscious.  This is completely normal and even encouraged.  Could not stay awake and didn’t really want to today.  Had a session on grading that was utterly worthless- key takeaway was…

Review time is in full swing for my kids.  Tomorrow I am giving them a behemoth review packet to work through, which will either serve them well in reviewing past material or cause a full-scale classroom rebellion.  To make it more bearable, we will be giving the kids “brain breaks,” where we will pull a…