Middle school ELA, 150 students, and what they teach me back.
You’d be surprised what a simple conversation with a teenager can accomplish. This week, I hit new heights of stress with one of my mixed 7th and 8th grade classes. I tried everything—calling home, emailing parents, sending a student to the office, setting new rules, rearranging seats—and nothing worked. Until today. Every other class I…
I pranked my students today, and it was glorious. Not all of them, just one of my 6th grade classes. Don’t worry, I’ll tell you all about it. But first, I need to set the stage a little. My classroom used to be used for kindergartners. Those kids got a new school and moved out,…
One of my favorite things about teaching so far, is how much it makes me think. Every day brings new challenges. Today, for example, I taught about the engineering process. I won’t go over all the steps here, but for those unaware, the engineering process is simply a method of thinking through creating something new….
I mixed things up today and got some surprising results. Instead of sticking to my typical plans, I decided to have my students play board games, take notes, then complete a short assignment on the game they played. For the most part, I think it went swimmingly well. As I’ve said before, the first week…
Day two of teaching and I successfully survived. Honestly, I feel like I got whiplash with how simultaneously fantastic and horrible the day went. I don’t think I can convey the feelings properly through text, but I thought it would be a fun challenge to give it a go. One class I’m moving around the…
After 40 hours of driving, some heavy house searching, and a crash course in middle school teaching, I finally started my new job today. For the first quarter of the year, I’m assigned to teach game design to 6th, 7th, and 8th graders. Obviously, one day on the job doesn’t tell me a whole lot…