The One

I teach about 90 juniors a year. Ten or fifteen of them will, in the first month of school, identify themselves as troubled. Academically, emotionally, cognitively, what have you. Students who won’t turn in work, won’t study, or won’t shut up or stay awake in class. About seven of those fifteen will leave: change schools, […]

The Best Lessons I Learned In School

1. “Necessary but not sufficient condition.” Geometry, 1992. Math is generally taught as if it is a tango, not a time to get down. Tango is too rigid for me. I never got to get down in math class the way I could when I was writing a paper. “Necessary but not sufficient” was one […]

The Humanity

I didn’t say this because I wasn’t sure I should. I’m a teacher, and I’m also a human being. I know, I know, it’s hard to believe. First I don’t sleep in my classroom… then this. People from the National Writing Project don’t ask me to be ashamed of spending time writing. They softened my […]

Why We Should Fund the National Writing Project

The National Writing Project has a suspiciously vague name, and does suspiciously vague things. focuses the knowledge, expertise, and leadership of our nation’s educators on sustained efforts to improve writing and learning for all learners. They “focus” teachers on “efforts to improve writing.” Using our federal tax dollars. It sounds like a lot of liberal […]