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a Teach for America science teacher in St. Louis
Donate Now On the last day of school, as we were waving goodbye to the kids, I thought about how it seemed anti-climactic. I didn’t have expectations for things to be different, it’s just that they got on the buses and were gone. That was it. The year was over. Done. No frills or brass-band.…
read more »Donate Now Alright, this week, it will be amazingly short compared to my chapter book published last week. This week we got our classrooms. I teach on a team of four people. I’m teaching algebra and such. The only problem is that I’m not getting much teaching done because my kids are having a really…
read more »What is this? I’m reposting my emails (exactly to the day) sent to family and friends during my summer 2006 Institute experience in Atlanta. TeachFor.Us didn’t exist at the time — hence the title. For some of you, this will be a trip down memory lane. For my hundreds of current readers, I hope you…
read more »Thursday afternoon, I received an unexpected letter in the mail. I received my placement letter for next year confirming that I would return to my original middle school. It’s not the assignment that was unexpected. What’s unexpected is that St. Louis Public Schools is organized enough to get the placements finalized within a month of…
read more »For better or worse the new Special Administrative School Board took control of St. Louis Public Schools today and the St. Louis Board of Education is essentially a defunct operation. A judge yesterday failed to enforce a motion for an injunction. On my way into a meeting at school this morning, the news reports were…
read more »Today, to help out a friend, I’m substituting in his summer school classroom. It’s so strange and different to walk into a classroom that’s not my own. The day is two two-hour classes in a non-air-conditioned classroom in 90 degree weather.
read more »Tick tock. The takeover clock chimes its bells on Friday. I don’t think anyone is turning into a pumpkin, though. This morning, the state commissioner of education, Kent King, denied the St. Louis Public Schools’ request to revisit the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s ruling to strip the city Board of Education of its…
read more »The below email was forwarded to the entire staff of my school by someone at the school. Someone sent this using school property while at work getting paid for his or her public-sector job.
read more »Sometimes, you want to tell someone thanks. I needed to do that for my neighbor friend/teacher. She was so helpful to have this year. She was the only one on a sane wavelength with me at all times. She’s a student advocate. She actually teaches. She cares about student achievement. She even came to me…
read more »My hat goes off to the people who have the loud voices of this school system — the school board members. They present a survivalist political savvy necessary if they intend to actually stop the impending state takeover of the district. This past Tuesday during the school board meeting, board-member Donna Jones introduced a resolution…
read more »Thankfully, today with students went by without too much fanfare. By that I mean things were kept relatively quiet and calm. Yesterday, I went to lunch with my best teacher-friend. We had joked how we might be of the few who go outside at the end of the day to wave goodbye. At the top…
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