[Editor's note: Ms. Socrates is a second-year science teacher in a high school in Brooklyn. She blogs at Teacher's Diary where this post originally appeared.]

One of the most valuable things a teacher can do is get ahead. On planning, on grading, on classroom decoration, you name it. Despite what many a lay person may think, teaching is a time consuming job, one that follows you home and even into your dreams at night. During the school year, I rarely feel rested and I am often racing around trying to get everything done. It is on the worst days that — inevitably — something unplanned comes up out of the blue to throw you off even more: a parent shows up for a meeting, a student you are close to has a crisis, the principal needs your help doing whatever it is he is doing.

I have learned in my year and a half of teaching that getting ahead from time to time is the only way to stay sane. During Regents week last week, I was able to get ahead, at least a little bit, which allowed me to relax over the weekend. Still, the snow day on Thursday threw me off and I now find myself backpedaling again. In an effort to get ahead again, I have been thinking about the most important steps. Here’s what I’ve come up with: 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.]

In my first two years as a teacher, I worked with upper grade general education classes. This year, I’m in a different world in two ways: I’m teaching primary grades, and mine is a special education class.

Since early January, I’ve been in a bit of a transitional phase.

I felt from the start that if I could rein in student behavior, encourage positive socialization with peers and others throughout the school community, and help develop my students’ independence, I would consider the year a success. These things have happened. My students are usually free of behavior issues (other than the minor infractions that are typical of any 6-year old). They are polite and helpful toward one another. If a child falls, the whole class asks, without my prompting, “Are you okay?” If someone drops their supplies, the entire class descends to the floor to pick them up. By and large, the students are much more independent than the beginning of the year, using the flow of the day to determine what materials they need for the next period, bringing things to the office with a partner, and advocating for their needs in the classroom.

All of this is necessary, but still, I hesitate to say this year has been a total success. It seems I may have been so caught up in developing these skills that I neglected to attend to the academic ones. Oops. More »

[Editor's note: Ms. Socrates is a second-year science teacher in a high school in Brooklyn. She blogs at Teacher's Diary where this post originally appeared.]

The January Regents exams are being administered this week. When I first heard that New York was considering nixing the January Regents, I was dead-set against it. I felt that students should be given every opportunity to make up the exams they failed in the past — I figured the more chances they had, the more likely they would be to pass.

However, since this is now the second January Regents week I will experience, I am becoming more ambivalent about the whole affair. More »

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

On any given day, I might find myself frustrated by a number of things that go on in my classroom. I’ve written before about minor calamities (broken pencils! lost folders!) and major ones (suicide threats! thrown chairs!). For the most part, those incidents — like many things that happen when you become a teacher — had nothing to do with my actual teaching ability, but rather my ability to not jump out a window in the face of overwhelming despair.

Lately, though, I’ve noticed something that does make me worry about my teaching ability: A number of my students, during mini lessons, are deeply engaged. Deeply engaged, that is, with various activities other than paying attention to my mini lesson. They are drawing on their folders. They are playing with their fingers, or with the person’s hair in front of them. They are, in short, paying so little attention to the lesson that they are not even bothering to pretend to pay attention by staring at a space approximately above my head.

Over the years, I’ve tried a number of methods for bringing these students back to earth. More »

A third-year teacher and blogger (known on this site as Kansan in the Bronx) writes on his blog that most of the students in his school stayed home after this week’s snow storm:

On Wednesday there was an undeclared snow day for seventy percent of our student body. As the doors opened up, in walked a single student of the thirty in my homeroom class. It was pretty surreal and set the stage for a day when everyone felt a bit confused and somewhat ripped off.

[Editor's note: Ms. Socrates is a second-year science teacher in a high school in Brooklyn. She blogs at Teacher's Diary where this post originally appeared.]

So a year has come and gone and I’m now starting to feel like more of a veteran than a newbie. As always, I try to take time to reflect on the past and set goals for the future — what better time than just as a new year is beginning.

Last year, I wrote 10 New Year’s Resolutions, and I think I managed to do about eight of them at least partially. I still need to work on giving captivating motivations at the beginning of each lesson, staying on top of grading, and planning farther ahead, but I know I am doing so much better on all of those things than I was when I wrote those resolutions. I have become much more confident in the classroom and teaching is truly starting to become fun. I am able to joke around more and make fun of how nerdy I am in front of my students. I think it makes them more comfortable liking science and school in general.

Now it is time to make new goals for this coming year. Here’s what I have come up with: 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.]

The helter-skelter nature of my classroom and the unpredictability of my weekly schedule at school forced me to be away from our word study program, Words Their Way, for several weeks. A few weeks ago, I returned to it, and, having done so, may have potentially stumbled, quite accidentally, onto what could be a major breakthrough for Donald (who, by now, you may know fairly well).

Words Their Way is a program that requires students to sort pictures and words according to patterns. Our sort this week was words with the ending patterns -en, -eg, and -et. Having been inspired by a visit to a colleague’s room a few weeks ago, I remembered how she printed the black and white images for the teacher sort (used to model and practice with the kids), and then colored the pictures in lively, engaging colors. Of course, I always use the teacher sort, but this week was the first time I took time out to color them.

As I was doing that, I was struck by my own inspiration. Knowing how much trouble my kids have had deciphering new patterns, and realizing the words are often foreign to English Language Learners (e.g., peg, jet, hen), I decided to color-code the words. I colored all the -en words yellow, the -et words pink, and the -eg words orange. This made it easier for students to see who was holding a given pattern in their hands, which put everyone further ahead going into the independent work than they have been all year.

During the work session, I watched from across the room as my para walked over to Donald with three distinctly colored markers and colored the headings -et, -eg, and -en. I walked over to observe, and then suggested to Donald that he may want to try to find all the -et words and color them the same color. He did, excitedly. Then, once we established the sound -et makes, he was able to, slowly but accurately, read the words “wet,” “pet,” “net,” and “jet.” I was amazed. This young man has done nothing remotely close to this level of work in Words Their Way all year, but here he was reading words like it was his job. More »

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

Over the last two and half years, I’ve gradually grown to into a confident, effective teacher. After just one year of teaching I took on the role of grade leader. I ran professional development meetings and helped many co-workers learn the curriculum and teaching strategies to help them succeed at teaching kindergarten. Having this role inspired me to continue my education and get my administrative license. When I graduated in May, I thought I would continue with my job as grade leader of kindergarten until I decided to interview for assistant principal jobs. This was my plan, but it certainly wasn’t my principal’s plan. I was told in June that I would be moving up to the third grade.

This September I entered my third grade classroom for the first time and had an overwhelming feeling of agita (an old Italian word for indigestion). I was lost. It was if I traveled back in time to nearly three ago when I was a very new teacher, one who knew nothing, and felt lost all the time. I didn’t know what to do. More »

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

I’m not sure how to admit this. I’m not sure if you’ll even believe me when I say it. Or perhaps, if you’re a teacher yourself, you’ll nod your head knowingly and say, “I could have told you this would happen.”

Are you ready for it?

I miss my old class.

Don’t get me wrong. I love my new school. I do not miss my old school. I love that the principal knows my students’ names and that I can walk through the always-open door in his office and ask for help with a problem. I love that my super third grade colleagues and I are constantly firing off e-mails to each other about ways to strengthen our teaching. I love that my students get to participate in African dance, and chess, and playwriting, and musical theater, and tons of other opportunities that weren’t available at my old school.

And yet — that’s why I miss them. 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.]

Donald (whom you’ll remember from a previous post) has had an up and down week, requiring a good faith call from the guidance counselor home to inquire about the sudden backslide in his behavior and the next day, a note from me to mom that, because I wrote it in Spanish, took me all of our writer’s workshop to complete. (I wrote plenty, but Donald refused to even open his folder, so he wrote nothing).

I am realistic and hopeful as I remember Mama Foteah’s sage words about a similar situation my first year: don’t let one slip-up erase all the progress. I treat Donald’s impulsive/regressive behaviors as separate entities, helping me (and I hope him) realize and remember that there are always fresh opportunities to impress. He’s also back on a sticker chart which, combined with ample praise, really helps to build him up.

Today, Donald was stringing together a wonderful day. 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.]

May I take a moment to introduce you to a couple of young men you’ll be reading about this year? I may? Why, thank you.

Here’s the bespectacled boy of 7, who keeps his glasses on his face with the use of a brown cord. Speech patterns are not what you’d expect from his age, nor is reading level. He has his moments when he’s a shining star, and he has those where he’s bent at the waist with his head and hands on the tiled floor, using his feet to leg press his desk into the middle of the room, or cutting up post-its and strewing them about. My friends, meet Donald.

And here’s another fine young man, 8 years of age, slightly above average height, width of a toothpick. Reads at one of the higher levels in the class, but still over two years behind his grade. Told me today “I read at home every night so I remember I’m smart.” He also alternates between bursts of inspired engagement/conscientious procedure following and extended bouts of “I have a headache,” “When are we going home?” “I want to go home” “Is it time to go home?” “Are we going home now?” and his own private trips to a special place I like to call La La Land. This, folks, is the esteemed David.

Now, prior to continuing, let me offer this disclaimer. As teaching special ed is a new venture for me, I’ve (not so humbly) been (somewhat) surprised at my (varying levels of) patience with my cherubs. That I write about Donald and David in a tongue-in-cheek way should not make you think that I am brushing their needs off and ignoring them. Instead, it’s a written exploration of one of my mental mantras with this group: “Sometimes, you’ve just gotta laugh.” More »

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

I spent the last two and a half years teaching a self-contained ESL kindergarten class. During that time I slowly grew to be a confident, effective teacher. My students all excelled in reading and writing by the end of the year, despite not knowing much English when they entered my classroom. I had even taken on the job of grade leader and had been coaching other teachers on how to teach reading and writing to their students. I was coming up on my tenure year and just knew that I would have no problem being successful. That is until I was told that I would be moving to the third grade in the fall. I was devastated. I was finally comfortable and confident in my classroom and they were moving me to the unknown. More »

[Editor's note: Ms. Socrates is a second-year science teacher in a high school in Brooklyn. She blogs at Teacher's Diary where this post originally appeared.]

One of the greatest things about teaching in a big city like NYC is that there are resources everywhere you turn. Some of them are great, some of them are so-so and some turn out to be terrible. But there is no shortage of opportunities for learning outside the classroom.

One of the biggest concerns, however, of inner-city classrooms is a lack of sufficient funding to make use of all the opportunities available. Sometimes, though, you come across an incredibly rich experience that is also entirely free.

The American Museum of Natural History has such an experience: the Moveable Museum. More »

[Editor's note: Ms. Socrates is a second-year science teacher in a high school in Brooklyn. She blogs at Teacher's Diary where this post originally appeared.]

A few weeks ago, I had my first “bad” day of the semester. It wasn’t all bad; in fact, a lot of it was good. I got flowers and two cards from students for my birthday and my last two classes sang to me and were extremely well behaved. The first two classes of the day, however, did not go as planned.

Last year, I fell into the trap of assuming that my students knew certain things: how to use a ruler, how many centimeters are in a meter, how to create a graph. They’re tenth graders, after all. But in reality, many of them only read on a 4th grade level and they never mastered the use of the metric system. They struggle to even figure out which side of the ruler is inches and which is centimeters. I resolved that this year, I would start out by explicitly teaching these skills rather than assuming the students already possessed them. More »

[Editor's note: Ms. Socrates is a second-year science teacher in a high school in Brooklyn. She blogs at Teacher's Diary where this post originally appeared.]

Overall, my second year as a teacher has been ten times easier than my first year — I am feeling confident and in control, even when I allow the students to take the wheel for a bit. It feels great! But there is one class that I’m still having trouble with.

My largest class happens to also contain about 15 of the most difficult students in the grade. While this means that my other classes are wonderful, devoid of any trouble-makers, this class reduced me to tears yesterday for the first time this year (although I would never actually cry in front of them, I saved it for later). Standing in that room, watching every single student talk without giving me a second thought, I felt like a newbie all over again. What if, I thought, this is how it’s always going to be.

Today, I got back out there and managed to get them somewhat under control. Here’s how.

1. I let my feelings out the night before. More »