[Editor's note: Teaching in Brooklyn is a fourth-year teacher at a Brooklyn elementary school.]

After spending my first two years as a first grade teacher working solo in an elementary school classroom of 28 students, I was recently hired at a new school as the general education teacher working with a special ed teacher in a collaborative team teaching classroom of 27 1st graders, nine of whom have IEPs. Coming into the new assignment, I was nervous about working with a partner. Suddenly I was presented with the reality of working with another teacher in the classroom, and I wondered what the day to day of it would be like. Would we have the same philosophy of education? How would we share the workload and paperwork? Would we be able to better reach our students by working collaboratively? And, not least, would we get along personally?

The first few weeks of planning and teaching were an adjustment period for both of us. It’s sort of like having an assigned roommate freshman year of college – you’re supposedly matched as perfect roommates, but every now and then one of the roommates ends up complaining to the resident advisor about the other. Our school matched us because it thought that we would be good partners, and, thankfully, the school was right.

At first, we were both slightly unsure of the power balance in the classroom. I think that teachers like to be the captain of their own ship. Now it was no longer “my” class, but “our” class. More »

[Editor's note: Kansan in the Bronx is a second-year teacher in a Bronx middle school.]

When I was visiting schools I could potentially teach at in the city I observed a couple classes at a well-respected middle school in the West Village. During the visit I observed a teacher scream at a student in class for perhaps the first time since I was in school. I was disgusted by the behavior. The student then told me how terrible the teacher was and how she was always picking on her. I took the side of the student, of course, knowing for certain that there was absolutely no excuse for yelling at a student in class. I couldn’t even fathom what would drive a teacher to act that way and wrote the teacher off as a bitter, unhappy person individual with anger-management issues.

When I student taught in Germany I raised my voice in one of my classes with a hint of irritation on the very last day I was there. A student was enormously surprised by that, saying, “Mr. L has never yelled!” It was day two in Bronx when I unleashed my already healthy vocal chords on my class. It was the first time they listened to me in two very long days. I screamed at them as loud as I possibly could, the order to take their seats ripping out of me like I’d never directed speech at a human before. Sure I’d gotten angry at each of my five siblings and my parents and had yelling matches with them. This was different though. I stopped short of throwing things, but barely. More »

[Editor's note: Mr. Music Teacher is a second-year teacher in an elementary school on Staten Island.]

As a new teacher, I am constantly assessing and critiquing my teaching methods. My first year of teaching went really well and I was able to develop new skills and learn from techniques that were and weren’t so successful. There is one thing I definitely would have done differently last year, given the opportunity. This year I didn’t make the same mistake.

A big part of my job last year, as the only music teacher at the elementary school I worked at, was developing a band program. The school had plenty of instruments sitting in a closet for years and it was my job to put them to good use. I met with the principal over the summer to discuss how the program would run, the curriculum, programming and performances. We decided to start the band in third and fourth grade. This would allow for a senior band and a beginner band the following year. More »

[Editor's note: Kindergarten Correspondent is a third-year teacher in an elementary school in Brooklyn.]

Alex was a crier. From the very first day, he cried. Not just a few tears, sad-to-leave-his-mommy crying, but tear-soaked T-shirts, hold-him-tight-while-his-mom-ran-out-the-door crying. Every morning for the first three weeks of school, he cried. He cried for about 15 minutes by the door. Then he would slowly stop and make his way over to a chair near the carpet. Eventually, he joined us and was good to go. By noon, you wouldn’t be able to pick him out of the crowd. He thoroughly enjoyed himself all day long.

Still only four, he was the smallest boy in the class. When he smiled, his face lit up so much, you only half-noticed the decaying top front teeth. Every time you saw them, it reminded you that his home life was probably not very comfortable. But he loved his momma. One day when he saw her coming down the street he said, “There’s my mommy! Isn’t she beautiful?” That might have been the same day he announced to the class that his daddy was in jail for shooting someone. If you thought about it long enough, you might wonder how he stopped crying at all. More »

[Editor's note: Kansan in the Bronx is a second-year teacher in a Bronx middle school.]

Something that got me through the first year was the ability to rely on veteran teachers to advise me on how to fix the problems I was experiencing. During the two weeks leading up to school I was still suffering from the syndrome that struck a lot of us at the School of Ed: a confusion between enthusiasm/knowledge of new education theories and experience in the field. I was also stricken with a bit of the assumption that being fresh out of college gave us unlimited advantages over our more senior colleagues.

After the shenanigans of the first day of school last year and a second day that wasn’t much better (including textbooks being thrown across the classroom), I trashed my carefully planned first unit and went on hands and knees to my mentor. I asked her to give me a lesson — any lesson that could possibly work in front of the students. I admitted for the first time perhaps in my entire life that I had absolutely no idea what to do to solve a problem. “Eating humble pie” seemed like an understatement. More »

[Editor's note: Little Miss Sunshine is the pseudonym of a second-year teacher at an elementary school in Queens.]

The first few weeks of the school year is the most stressful time of year for most teachers.  Before the beginning of the school year I tried to prepare myself as much as I possibly could, spending most of the last few weeks of summer on inconceivably long lines — lines that rival that of a 75% off sale at Coach on Black Friday — just to get every crisp new poster laminated at the teacher supply store. When the doors opened on the first day of school, and I saw the first child clinging to her mom’s legs screaming, “Please don’t leave me!” the only thought that ran through my head was: I know the feeling kid. I wanted nothing more than to be with my mommy too!

As the first week of school ended, I looked back and remembered the things that had gone wrong, the students who couldn’t seem to learn the rules, and the nagging thoughts that things would never get better. As I entered week two, and I realized my students still hadn’t learned even the most basic rules, I began to ask myself several questions: What’s wrong with them? Why can’t they learn? What’s wrong with me? Why can’t I teach them? Why can’t they be more like my wonderful kids from last year?  Why did I put down kindergarten on my preference sheet?  Why did I go into teaching in the first place? More »

[Teacher Man is the pseudonym of a third-year teacher at an intermediate school in Brooklyn.]

I have just begun my third year of teaching here in New York City, and from a pedagogical standpoint, things are going well. After two years that were more of a learning experience for me than they probably were for my students, I feel like I’m finally coming into my own as an educator. Tasks that once seemed gargantuan, such as creating a behavior management plan and mapping out an entire unit, now seem second nature. Classroom management is, dare I say, well under control.

My third year is also unique because I began my teaching career through the New York City Teaching Fellows alternative certification program. For the last two years, in addition to teaching full time I was also going to Hunter College at night to earn my Master’s degree. While I learned a great deal those first two years, I often felt like I was barely keeping my head above water. The demands and deadlines of a graduate degree program combined with the stresses of being a new teacher were overwhelming, to say the least. Looking back now, I wonder how I made it. More »

[Editor's note: Viajante ambulante is the pseudonym of a second-year ESL teacher in a Queens middle school.]

During my first year of teaching, I took a trip to Cuba and started up a pen pal program between my students and Cuban students. Seeing how interested and curious my students became after I shared photos and stories from my travels, I’m really looking forward to sharing my experiences from this summer, which took me from New England to Israel, Egypt and Mexico.

I started my whirlwind vacation soon after the last day of school in June. I went to Burlington, Vermont where I was pleasantly surprised to see Lake Champlain. I had first heard about this pristine body of water as a student in 2nd-grade social studies at P.S. 4 in Staten Island. Seventeen years later, as I sat on a dock and looked out onto the dark-blue water, reflecting a gray evening sky, I smiled and wondered how many of my students will one day find themselves in one of the places I’ve shown them. More »

[Editor's note: miss brave is the pseudonym for a third-year elementary school teacher in Queens in her first year as a classroom teacher. She blogs at miss brave teaches nyc, where these posts originally appeared.]

Tuesday, Sept. 1

The past few mornings, I’ve been awake early, my mind buzzing with all the things I need to accomplish before school starts. Most of my tasks are mental — How many classroom jobs do I want to have? What will our morning routine look like? — and some of them are physical, like going to Staples to laminate my number line and gathering all the supplies I’ve accumulated and packed in around my apartment over the summer, like a squirrel hoarding nuts for the fall.

This morning, when the soon-to-be Mr. Brave asked why I was up so early, I told him it was because I was getting nervous. Mr. Brave served in the Army, and I asked him if he had ever been nervous in Iraq. More »

[Editor’s note: miss brave is the pseudonym for a public school teacher in Queens going into her third year. She blogs at miss brave teaches nyc, where this post originally appeared.]

It always takes me about a month to adjust to the rhythm of the summer. For the first two weeks in July, I dream about school: it’s not over yet, it’s just begun, I’m getting excessed, I’m being moved to high school, you get the picture. And just when I’m settling into vacation, blam! August hits like a ton of bricks and I start having those back to school dreams. A few days ago I had the one where it’s the first day of school and my classroom is completely unfinished, and also it’s like the middle of first period and I have yet to pick up my class.

So I took that as a sign I should get my butt over to the school supply store. (Actually, if you really want to know, it went down like this: July 30 — I get an email from the UFT about our Teacher’s Choice allocation money for the coming school year. As always, we can start purchasing school supplies on August 1. Which I don’t, because I spent August 1 at the beach and a baseball game, because I have all the time in the world to purchase school supplies! August 2 — I have my bad dream about the unfinished classroom. August 3 — helloooooooooo, school supplies, I’ve been expecting you.) More »

[Editor's note: Bronxteach is the pseudonym of an elementary school teacher going into his third year. He blogs at bronxteach.com, where this post first appeared.]

A little more than two years ago I found myself trying to decide between New York City Teaching Fellows and a paralegal position at a law firm specializing in anti-trust law. They both seemed like good, albeit far different, opportunities. My ever-protective mom, a former teacher who got her start in East L.A., advised against Teaching Fellows. I myself weighed the benefits of excitement and “making a difference” against the likelihood that I would be embarking on the most difficult experience of my life. Ultimately, picturing myself numbed by boredom one month into work at my air-conditioned Manhattan office, I opted for Teaching Fellows.

Surely it would be an incredible challenge. Despite volunteer experience in high school and college as a mentor and tutor for “at-risk” youth, nothing had really prepared me to teach some of New York City’s poorest children. Still, I looked forward to the chance to gain “valuable life experience” as I saw it. In two years, I would look back at my time as a teacher with pride at what I had accomplished and the good I had done for the kids. Then, I would move on to whatever career I’d finally chosen.

Flash forward to October 2007. Things were not going well. More »

[Editor’s note: miss brave is the pseudonym for a second-year elementary school teacher in Queens. She blogs at miss brave teaches nyc, where this post originally appeared.]

So I’ve been hibernating for a little while, getting used to the idea of being a classroom teacher for the first time. (Pet peeve: When my students found out I would be going to the classroom, they all said, “You’re going to be a real teacher next year?” I kept explaining, I’m a real teacher now, I just don’t have my own classroom!)

Slowly and painfully, I am getting used to the idea. Bonuses: No more coverages or suspension room ever again!

Many of the first grade teachers had their students write letters of greeting to their second grade teachers (hello, that would be me!). They are too cute not to share, and so here they are. I’m preserving their spelling and grammar, so you’ll just have to do your best to decipher them like any good second grade teacher would. More »

[Editor's note: Just Miss is the pseudonym of a second-year teacher in a high school in the Bronx.]

There is dirt under my fingernails. Always. I can’t ever seem to get them clean, no matter how many times I use the pink industrial soap in the faculty bathroom, or the school-issued hand sanitizer.

Can I recall the days when I used to have clean fingernails? Regular manicures? Hmm….. nope. I suddenly feel for the art teachers of the world. Their manicures were doomed from Day One. More »

[Editor’s note: Ms. Teach4Life is the pseudonym of a tenth-year teacher currently in her first year at a Manhattan middle school.]

At the end of each school year, I take time to reflect on the year and evaluate which components were successful, and which aspects may need to be tweaked. Over the last few years teaching ELA in a middle school in North Carolina, I have found five points to be among the best practices. Following these guidelines helped to make this year — my first year in a Manhattan middle school — a successful one.

Start with the students in mind, not the curriculum. The beginning of the school year starts with a whir, and it continues in that fast-paced manner for about a month. Then it is time for test prep, because January is right around the corner! It is easy to fall into the trap of teaching the curriculum and not the student. Don’t let yourself fall prey! I often spend the first week of school having the students complete interest inventories and personal interviews. I want to know about their families and cultures and who they are as individuals. Throughout the year I remain focused on building relationships outside of my classroom. I participate in student/staff ball games, sponsor clubs throughout the year, and try to attend any student activities I am invited to. This year I attended a dance recital, a karate championship, and a concert. Don’t underestimate the power of building meaningful relationships with your students. More »

[Teacher Man is the pseudonym of a second-year teacher at an intermediate school in Brooklyn.]

The end of the school year is always a bit chaotic for students and teachers alike. The numerous activities going on at school, from graduation to end of year parties and trips, keep everyone busy and the sunshine outside begins to draw all eyes to the windows as summer makes its grand entrance. It is also a time for reflection on both the year that has passed and that which is yet to come. Eighth graders are gearing up for the new challenges of high school, high school graduates are preparing for higher education and their future careers, and teachers are already beginning to think about their unit and lesson planning for the next year.

For me, this time of year is more reflective than ever. I am just now completing my second year in the New York City school system, which is also the culmination of my training as a New York City Teaching Fellow. I graduated from Hunter College with my MA in Teaching English as a Second Language last week, and I am on my way to becoming a fully certified and appointed teacher. I have learned so much in the last two years that it’s almost difficult to remember how I felt walking into my first classroom two summers ago not really knowing much about my profession. The experience has been life changing, to say the least, but also more enriching and humanizing than I ever could have imagined.

My story really begins in the spring of 2007, when I went from being a dissatisfied corporate employee at a luxury goods company to an aspiring teacher. More »