Don't Pump the Brakes

These last few months have been busy, very fast, and quite exciting. Between subbing summer classes, working on random projects and tutoring SAT prep sessions, I honestly feel that I started school a month early this year! In August, I found out that I would officially be changing rooms, and was going to be teaching in room 301. I was really excited to get a new classroom. Just like my experience last year , it took a lot of cleaning to get my room in order. After spending about two full weeks cleaning up the room and making everything look nice for the first day of school, I was ready to start year two at East Side.   Panorama of Room 301 before the first day of school On my first day of school, I tried out an activity my Vice Principal told me he used to use about working hard and achieving goals. In essence, I had a student jump as high as they could, and mark their jump with a marker. After leading a conversation with the class, I got a chair, and taped a $5 bill an inch...

When one becomes a teacher, there is an often told piece of advice given from veteran educators that encourages a new teacher to “not smile before Christmas.” The idea is that, if you show your students that you are happy and having fun, you are indirectly showing them that you are “weak.” I thought long and hard about what I was going to be like as a teacher, especially since I was very young and had little experience. Sure, I student taught during college and worked in Harlem the summer leading up to my first year, but this was different. For the first time, I was on my own.  Teaching an algebra class earlier in the year And there I was, in September, standing by myself in front of a class of freshman ready to learn. I was a recent college graduate, I just moved to Newark a few weeks prior, and, at 21 years old, was the youngest member of the faculty by over a year. As an extremely young, new and inexperienced teacher, it was initially a challenge to gain the r...

This past April was one hell of a month. After surviving my first official graduate school residency at Seton Hall during the first weekend, I was looking forward to going to Boston with the East Side High School Student Council on the 11 th and 12 th . This was my third overnight trip with the group, and, having had  incredibly moving experiences the first two times around, I was extremely excited about this one. With the East Side High School Student Council at Harvard University In two days, we were able to visit four schools: Harvard , Boston College , Northeastern and Boston University . As was the case with previous trips, it was such an empowering weekend. Although I had a lot of great dialogue with the students during our two day venture throughout Boston, three specific conversations stick out: The first was at BC, when we were eating lunch. I was sitting across from a senior who recently moved to the United States from Ecuador seven months ago. We ...

     After spending years in different classrooms observing, student teaching, tutoring and volunteering , I was both very anxious and excited to actually have a class of my own this year. Last week signaled the end of the first marking period; what an interesting first quarter it has been. One of my students working on a problem at the board      A week before school started, I finally received the keys to my classroom. When I walked in for the first time, the room was nothing like I had envisioned at all. I had six desks in my class, there was graffiti on all of the walls, everything was dirty, and to say I was disappointed would be an understatement. But it the midst of all the ruble, I saw the layout of a great classroom. I knew I only had a few days before school started, so I got to work right away trying to make the best classroom with the materials I had. I started by throwing away all of the broken furniture, ripped posters and fr...