[Editor's note: Miss Endurance is the pseudonym of a fourth-year teacher in an elementary school on Staten Island.]

It’s never a good sign when your principal calls during summer vacation.

In the summer of 2010 my world was turned upside down with seven words: “I have to move you to kindergarten.” Here I was, with just two years of teaching under my belt (teaching fourth and fifth grade), being forced to move to the “dungeon” (which is how the upper-grade teachers lovingly referred to the kindergarten floor). I panicked — I didn’t know the first thing about teaching four- and five-year-olds! But I really had no idea that a year later I’d be looking back on my kindergarten experience with fondness and a sense of accomplishment.

I felt ill-equipped for the job. I never considered myself a very patient person, and the idea of having to deal with things like “Johnny took my pencil!” and “I want my mommy!” made me break out into hives. I’m artistically challenged, and I dreaded kindergarten art projects. My biggest fear was selling my students short — it wasn’t their fault they had a newbie teacher.

On the first day of school the little ones looked about as scared as I was. I had done my best to prepare myself — I learned circle songs and absorbed as much as I could from the veteran teachers on the grade. Nevertheless, feelings of inadequacy haunted me every day.

Then, slowly but surely, I started to get into the swing of things. More »

[Editor's note: Ms. Flecha is the pseudonym of a fifth-year elementary school ESL teacher in Queens. She blogs at My Life Untranslated, where a version of this post first appeared.]

Few things are better than a fresh start. To come at something with new eyes, new lessons learned, and a chance to do things differently than before — it’s reinvigorating. And teachers get one every September: a chance to re-imagine everything from how you teach to how you decorate your classroom. The opportunities can be endless, if you look at the things you hope to do differently with an open mind. Not many professions offer that. More »

[Editor's note: Mr. Foteah is a teacher in an elementary school in Queens now in his fourth year. He blogs at From the Desk of Mr. Foteah, where this post originally appeared.]

Twas the eve of the school year, and all through the town,
No teacher was sleeping, (sitting up or laying down).
They’d prepared their classrooms, so nicely, with care
Anticipating that the students soon would be there.

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of learning danced in their heads.
They thought ‘fore they slumbered, “How will it be?
Will my teacher be nice? Will my teacher like me?”

Next morning came ‘round, and there rose such a clatter
Kids sprung from their beds: school was here, all that matters.
Away to the bus they ran like a flash,
The walkers didn’t walk, but rather, they dashed.

The sun burning sharp on the glimmering playground
Made children squint looking for friends to be found.
When, what to their wondering eyes should appear,
But a group of old classmates, and their teacher this year. More »

[Editor's note: Mr. Foteah is a teacher in an elementary school in Queens going into his fourth year. He blogs at From the Desk of Mr. Foteah, where this post originally appeared.]

I’ve noticed several posts recently in which people are writing letters to their first-year teacher selves. I thought I’d do the same.

Dear Me (On the Eve of My First Year Teaching),

Well, this is it. This is truly it. Two years ago you finished college with a degree that turned out to be useless, and now, after two years of graduate school in a totally different field – elementary education – they say you’re qualified to be a teacher. And you think you’re qualified to be a teacher.

Well, maybe you are. After all, you have a unique way with children, you can relate to them, you get where they’re coming from because you haven’t lost sight of what it’s like to be a child. But you won’t be dealing with issues like you experienced growing up. Oh sure, your students will experience family and pet deaths, the maddening powerlessness of being caught up in a parental argument, the frustration of struggling in school. They’ll come to you for help, and you will be able to empathize with these things.

But how are you going to deal with the kids who have only one parent and several siblings that they care for at the age of 10? The kid who comes in late every Thursday because he is helping his mom clean until 2 am that morning? The kid with the dad who sees you as a barrier to his child’s success just because you recommend continuation of services? The kid who threatens personal bodily harm because you indicate your disappointment? The kids who wear the same clothes everyday, not because they like them, but because when you wear hand-me-downs exclusively, your choices are limited?

How are you going to deal with all that? (Or any of the other stuff I didn’t even mention?) More »

New Teacher Diaries contributor Nick James writes about how his wish for a school-branded necktie led to a “School Culture Initiative,” which established new school colors, a mascot, and a logo. School t-shirts were distributed to students and faculty, and the initiative culminated in a pep rally that was “the first time in our school’s history that the entire school was in one place.”

After teaching for a couple of years, and especially since my high school glory days, my perspective on many things in education have changed substantially. Two years into my current position it struck me that the symbols, mascots, colors and various other school spirit pieces are incredibly important for many students and teachers to feel as though they are part of something larger — a community. Hopefully our rebranding is just the beginning of a major shift in the way our students view their school and school community. Hopefully the momentum that’s been started carries us into the next major stage in our school’s history.

[Editor's note: Mr. Foteah is a third-year teacher in an elementary school in Queens. He blogs at From the Desk of Mr. Foteah, where this post originally appeared.]

I recently wrote about how having friends at work was never a priority. However, the fact of the matter is I have made some close ones — people I really respect and enjoy being around. That makes work pleasant, as we’re all dealing with similar challenges together, instead of battling alone. Of course, it makes you want to go to work everyday, knowing that you’re going to a place where you are liked and like the people around you.

Now, I’ve heard anecdotes recently from a variety of schools about colleagues not being so supportive of each other, saying nasty things behind others’ backs and the like. I hope no one is doing this to me, and if any of my colleagues have any kind of issue with me, that they can bring it to my attention and we can work it out.

Like everyone else, I want to be recognized for my positive attributes, and I want those to be my hallmarks and form my reputation. More »

[Editor's note: Mr. Foteah is a third-year teacher in an elementary school in Queens. He blogs at From the Desk of Mr. Foteah, where this post originally appeared.]

Recently, I took the opportunity to do something I’ve never done before. I brought out the students’ writing folders, with all their published pieces from the school year. I called their attention to their non-fiction writing, and I asked them to pick the one they thought next year’s teacher should see. This forced some serious consideration and observation. Students were, maybe for the first time, attending to a tangible representation of how their work has evolved for the better since September. They recalled each book, and I was amazed at their ability to read them almost perfectly.

Most pleasant for all of us, especially me, was the way they reacted when they reached the very backs of their folders. There, they could see a writing sample from the very first day of school, replete with summer rust and lacking many conventions. The simplest words that they take for granted now were misspelled. People were drawn as sticks, some with legs coming out of their heads. For some students, a single letter represented a word. For others, pictures did all the storytelling. They could not believe the difference between September and June. More »

[Editor's note: Bronxteach is a fourth-year elementary school teacher. He blogs at bronxteach.com, where this post first appeared.]

Is it really June already? It seems almost impossible to believe. The school year always has its ebbs and flows, its points where you can’t see an end in sight and points where it seems the year is flying by. In mid-June, it feels like a little bit of both.

At this point in the year, teachers and students are literally counting the days to summer. Meanwhile, teachers are in a rush to get final assessments and all sorts of clerical work completed. On top of that, it’s our last chance to cram in a couple of projects, rush through that last one (or two) math units and get our kids ready for next year. So we’re in the awkward position of wishing the year was over, but wishing we had more time left. More »

[Editor's note: Mr. Foteah is a third-year teacher in an elementary school in Queens. He blogs at From the Desk of Mr. Foteah, where this post originally appeared.]

A while ago, I made a proclamation (in my head, anyway) that I’d move the direction of my blog away from railing against that which was not in my control. What was the point? At any rate, my students this year are too young to take the tests that in many ways define grades 3-8, so it wasn’t really on my mind much. In fact, I not so quietly gloated to my colleagues the last few weeks that, “I’m glad not to be dealing with this anymore.”

But today, I feel the need to pontificate just a little. The testing bubble burst this week when my students had to sit for three separate sessions of the state English proficiency exam. Since I have a bridge class, I had to deal with the logistical aggravation of the arrangement, including switched and missed preps as well as figuring out where to keep the students who weren’t testing in a given session. This was a nuisance but something I could manage.

My students had to deal with a much more potent and demoralizing aggravation. More »

[Editor's note: Miss Brave is the pseudonym of a fourth-year teacher in an elementary school in Queens. She blogs at miss brave teaches nyc, where this post originally appeared.]

Top 10 Questions/Comments Made By My Third Graders During Their First Ever Set of ELA and Math State Exams

(aka “Why Teaching In a Testing Grade May Cause Premature Aging,” or “Why I Have Band-Aids On All My Fingers From Nervously Picking Off the Cuticles While Proctoring”)

10. “Why do we have to use a #2 pencil?”

9. (Directions read by me: “You may not speak to each other while the test is being administered.” Student:) “What does ‘administered’ mean?”

8. “I don’t get how to show my work for this part.”

7. (The test directs students to continue working when they see the words GO ON at the bottom of the page and to stop working when they see the word STOP. On the ELA, students get ten minutes per passage and have to STOP before being directed to move on. On the math exam, they get 60 minutes to do all 40 questions, no STOPping. On the math exam, one student asked:) “When is it gonna say STOP?!”

6. “But none of these choices are right.” More »

[Editor's note: Miss Brave is the pseudonym of a fourth-year teacher in an elementary school in Queens. She blogs at miss brave teaches nyc, where a version of this post originally appeared.]

Test prep in my third-grade class has been extremely stressful. First of all, I’ve never taught “test prep” before, not least of all to kids who have never taken “THE TEST” before. I’m convinced my co-teacher and I don’t know what we’re doing and if (when?) the children do poorly, it will be our fault for not adequately preparing them. Second of all, I went to this Teacher Center workshop where I was shamefully reminded that my students are eight years old. They are eight years old and I have spent the last four weeks being impatient with them because they don’t understand how to bubble the bubbles correctly or aren’t following our test-taking tips (“we just taught you to circle the genre in the directions and that answer choice is directly from the passage”).

When by mid-May it’s all over, I’m not sure what we’ll do. We have other units left to cover, of course, but I fear the kids will be mentally checked out of school for the year now that it will no longer be on THE TEST, and as teachers we’ll be looking ahead to next year. More »

[Editor's note: Mr. Foteah is a third-year teacher in an elementary school in Queens. He blogs at From the Desk of Mr. Foteah, where this post originally appeared.]

I allow my students to bring small toys to school. The toys help keep them out of trouble at lunch with necessary imaginative diversions that they don’t get in school otherwise. They also lend a sense of security to the students, knowing they’ve got something genuinely their own in school with them.

The other day, one of my students picked up one of the toys off the floor. It apparently never got back into Donald’s bag after lunch, and he had left. She held up a small Superman figure and told me it belonged to Donald. I asked her to leave it on my desk and told her I’d return it to him. This was last week.

Today, I was doing a little desk straightening, and my eyes fell upon Superman, arms stretched toward the sky, plastic cape frozen in a flap behind his chiseled shoulders. I picked up the little toy, balanced it on a couple of things on my desk trying to get him to stand. I couldn’t do it, so finally, I propped him on a pencil holder. Superman tipped forward toward his prone flying position, and I said to myself, “Somehow, that works.” More »

[Editor's note: Mr. Foteah is a third-year teacher in an elementary school in Queens. He blogs at From the Desk of Mr. Foteah, where this post originally appeared.]

A few weeks ago, I was struck with some inspiration before the kids arrived one morning, and decided to create a “Mystery Envelope” to add some intrigue to my elementary special education classroom, and to liven up our somewhat stale morning routines. I try to reserve the contents of the Mystery Envelope for the most outstanding performances in kindness and personal improvement.

After the Mystery Envelope’s debut, I hung it near our calendar as a reminder that “You never know what’s inside the Mystery Envelope!” and as a somewhat passive message that good things come to those who earn them.

When it comes to awarding a student with the contents of the envelope, I like to strike when the iron is hot. The iron hadn’t been much hotter than it was the previous day after Tessa’s brilliant display of friendship and compassion toward Donald, who was very upset that his mother did not get to see him perform in our class play. I knew it would be a good opportunity to keep Tessa on a hot streak. More »

[Editor's note: Ms. Flecha is the pseudonym of a fourth-year elementary school ESL teacher in Queens. She blogs at My Life Untranslated, where a version of this post first appeared.]

A former student came to visit me one recent Friday morning. Last year was the first year I taught 5th grade, and this was the first time I’d been visited by a “graduated” student. I was really taken by surprise when he walked in my door.

If I had had to guess who would come to visit me first, I wouldn’t have guessed him. “Carlos” was a student who had a hard time sitting still in the beginning of last year. He would often ask to go to the bathroom, or to the guidance counselor, and when he was sitting at his desk, he’d either be talking or falling asleep. He often needed help with things that other students could do independently.

Yet he was one of the students I’d miss whenever he was absent, and he was an example of the kind of student whose life experiences had inspired me to become a teacher in the first place. The main reason for his agitated behavior and his exhaustion, I later found out, was that he had been suffering nightmares about his border-crossing experience, and was living in constant fear that immigration agents would take him or his parents to jail or send them back to their country. And here he was in my class trying to learn in a new language. More »

Chinese New Year Parade in Flushing

[Editor's note: Little Miss Sunshine is a third-year teacher in an elementary school in Queens.]

Feb. 3 was the kick-off of Chinese New Year, a 15-day celebration filled with food, family, and bright colors. I work in the heart of Flushing, which boasts a large, and growing, Chinese population. This year I have a self-contained beginner ESL 3rd grade class. This is my first year teaching 3rd grade, after three years of teaching ESL kindergarten. And though Chinese New Year was a celebration in my class in the past, it was a modest affair, with some books about the holiday and Chinese food.

I thought this year’s celebration would be no different, but when we came back from winter break in early January, my students couldn’t stop talking about their plans for Chinese New Year. I quickly realized that this holiday is a much bigger deal than I originally thought. More »