July 2009
1 post
My kids took the CRCT (Criterion Referenced Competency Test) today for Math, which was what we had been preparing them for all summer. I wrote all of the kids cards telling them how proud I was of them and their individual successes and created an email account where they could contact me (as well as by phone). I had planned a little speech about how they all had been scholars (our theme for our...
June 2009
3 posts
The Achievement Gap is Real
I have read countless articles, books, and memiors depicting the horror of the achievement gap, but it is not - cannot - be real until you can actually place a face and a name to those students. It has only been two weeks, but the faces and specific challenges of my students is already burned into my soul and something I will never be able to shake.
My 8th grade students are smart. I mean really...
One day all children in this nation will have the...
So I’m finally here. A hectic 10 days of graduation, packing, and roadtripping has finally brought me to my 6 week destination of Georgia Tech, where we will have “Induction” (Atlanta corps only for one week) and “Institute” (all of the Southeastern US for 5 weeks for teacher prep and teaching summer school) for Teach for America.
Then, on August 10th, I will be...
“One day, all children in this nation will have the opportunity to attain an...”
– Teach for America
April 2009
1 post
Ron Clark's The Essential 55
RULE 50: Be positive and enjoy life. Some things just aren’t worth getting upset over. Keep everything in perspective and focus on the good in your life.
RULE 51: Live so that you will never have regrets. If there is something you want to do, do it! Never let fear, doubt, or other obstacles stand in your way. If there is something you want, fight for it with all of your heart. If there is...
March 2009
3 posts
“A hundred years from now it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort...”
– Forest E. Witcraft
"Talkin' big comma Claire stop"
One of the most entertaining and probably THE most useful class for teaching I’ve taken, revolves around literacy. Today’s topic was vocabulary and our professor presented us with the following sentence and asked for a volunteer to read it aloud:
The latebricolean sagamore was objurgated for the diablerie of abaction.
As one would expect, the class of 40 people or so sat there...
The Countdown Begins
After two weeks of shuffling the books from their box, to my desk, to the floor, to their final resting place on my bookshelf after having tripped over them multiple times, I finally cracked open my pre-institute work for TFA yesterday. Its broken up into 8 sections, and aside from taking up a considerable chunk of my time this semester, it doesn’t look too bad.
The first section is mostly...
February 2009
1 post
“But it’s not just learning things that’s important. It’s...”
– Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth