Congratulations to all of the new 2010 Corps Members!  Your head is probably spinning with all of the info TFA has thrown at you while you are trying to finish finals or celebrate graduation with your friends.  It is definitely an exciting time in your life, and the next few weeks, months, and years will…

The end of the year moves very quickly, but is arguably the best time of the year.  The weeks leading up to the HSA were stressful, as I was working to push my students to learn the last bit of biology before they took the test that we were preparing for all year.  I became…

Because of the snow days, I have had to cram the remainder of the curriculum into a few weeks.  Consequently, my genetics unit went from the original 5 weeks to 3 weeks.  This has resulted in a multitude of frustrations, all stemming from the fact that I haven’t had the usual time I take to…

When I was in high school, I remember having a few snow days every year.  They would be spread out and were always a pleasant surprise.  However, I never had a snow week until I moved to Baltimore.  In case you didn’t see it on the news, we got hit with 2 blizzards in the…

I’ve had a few firsts over the past couple weeks that have been pretty interesting: – I was asked to write a letter of recommendation for the first time.  This student is one of my best so it was very easy to write- she was applying to the National Honor Society and was accepted. -…

After weeks of counting down, Winter Break finally arrived and it was well worth the wait. I spent a lot of quality time with friends and family, and most importantly relaxed.  I came back to Baltimore the Saturday before school started so I had a full day to prepare for school, and I definitely needed…

Before thanksgiving, my students’ attitudes for the most part were off the charts.  Normally well-behaved kids refused to do work and I had more issues with behaviors than I normally do.  After speaking with other teachers, I learned that this is pretty typical of student behavior around thanksgiving.  The reason is that thanksgiving dinner is…

Sarcasm may not translate well on a blog, but here’s a breakdown of this past week. Monday- After school, we had a faculty meeting for an hour about Bloom’s Taxonomy- something that was drilled into our heads during institute.  That meeting made all of the TFA teachers at my school late to our all-corps night…

The first week of school, I had my students think of three excuses to why they’ve failed a class before or why we shouldn’t have the same test scores as students in the County.  Then, I had them write their best excuse on this special paper called flash paper.  This paper ignites into a flame…

Last weekend, the students had a 4 day weekend because Thursday and Friday were devoted to professional development days for teachers.  Those days for teachers consisted of sitting in our classrooms, grading and planning instead of in meetings.  I’m not really sure if other schools did anything but we definitely didn’t.  That weekend, I took…

October is supposed to be one of the roughest times of the year for teachers because the students are getting more comfortable in class and behavior problems start showing up more often.  I’d say that’s been fairly accurate with my experience but nothing too crazy yet. My last period continues to be my biggest challenge. …

It’s been almost a month since I started teaching- I can’t believe it!  I’ll include a few snippets from the past couple weeks. Welcome Back to School Night was this past week.  I had 9 students’ parents or guardians come out of about 90 students which is a pretty high rate compared to some of…

Apparently, the first couple weeks of teaching are called The Honeymoon because everyone is in the back-to-school mood and everything is new and exciting.  I’d say overall I’m happy with the first two weeks but apparently the next stage is Survival, then Disillusionment (right around Thanksgiving and Christmas), then rejuvenation and finally reflection.  Hopefully I…

Tomorrow is the first day of school and a lot of my fellow corps members are rightfully stressed.  There is so much we have had to do to prepare for tomorrow and many people are frantically working tonight to get it all sorted out.  Luckily, I feel pretty good about the first few days of…

Institute has been over for about two weeks now and I can’t believe it.  I’ve moved into my row house in Baltimore and I’m pretty much settled in.  And I love Baltimore!  When I was deciding where to do TFA, I ranked all of the big east coast cities as highly preferred and got placed…

Because one of the huge goals of institute is student achievement for our summer school students, I thought it would be appropriate to highlight a few students I have had the opportunity to teach over the past four weeks. The first week and a half of school, K. constantly threw his notes on the floor. …

Week Three definitely had some ups and downs.  I’ll share two that I think pretty much sum up the roller coaster ride that is institute. – Our midterm was Wednesday so the students had a lot of pressure and anxiety about tests.  My CS said in five years of teaching she had three fights break…

This week, we started teaching the summer school students.  My first day, my colab members and I set up the classroom and class was supposed to start at 8:00 a.m.  At 8:00, I had about four students.  We planned to go over class rules and consequences from 8-8:30 then administer the pre-test for all students. …

Oh my god.  That phrase pretty much defined this week over and over.  After traveling to Boston and DC (two cities I’ve never been to) and hanging out with new and old friends, I boarded a bus to Philly.  The bus company was pretty shady but a friend had taken it before and he told…

Induction is the first week where all of us go to Baltimore to meet each other and actually figure out what we signed up for.  It was definitely a lot more fun that I thought it would be, and it was a great way to get introduced to the region, my fellows teachers, and TFA…

In about 15 hours my plane will land in Baltimore and I will officially begin the next chapter of my life.  It’s so strange to think about how drastically different my life will be.  I will live in a city I’ve never been to, become friends with people I’ve never met, and do something I’ve…