The Caste System in School

As much as I complain about my students, they really surprise me, and today we took that Marxism discussion even further as we compared the characters in three textx by talking about how their class levels influence their actions.
The first story is Born Worker, by Gary Soto, where we meet young Jose and his cousin [...]

Gary Soto and Marxism

I just knew the opportunity to teach a very, very limited view of marxism would come up in the classroom, but I was just hoping to find a way to frame it so that the kids could understand it. That opportunity happened today when we began reading the story: “Born Worker” by Gary Soto.
I [...]

The Summer Session begins

You’ll notice a new header at the top of the page;something to reflect the new direction I’ll take with the summer school classes I’ll teach this summer. Don’t know how I got suckered into teaching the summer session at school, but I’m glad I did — I’ll be working with three other teachers in [...]

Update

Been gone for a while now, and the short answer is this: My wife gave birth to our son! He was born at 7:54 on a sunday evening three weeks ago, and weighed in at 7lbs 9 oz, measuring 22 inches in length.
I think that’s a good enough excuse to take a break from [...]

More futuristic stuff

In thinking about the future I forgot to mention that the summer session will begin in about a month-and-a-half. We’ve already ammassed a team of teachers and students who’ll attend this summer program, which will funciton more like an educational camp than regular school, and we’re working to create curriculum for this program.
The coolest [...]

Time to start thinking about the future

Even though there’s still a month left in school, I feel myself getting giddy about what’s going to happen next year; I hear it from other teachers, as well — the excitement comes out in their voices when they talk about what they’ll do next year. Guess that’s one of the greatest things about [...]

Big things comin’

A few days ago, in the Friday Haiku, I mentioned a ouple of things that I’d just like to outline now. It’s a time of big change and more work, and a time to reflect on just how well I’m doing with my classes.
Evaluation = perfect (but one caveat)
Those first two lines just talk [...]

Feel free to download, change, and share

One of the things I’m doing outside of school that’s keeping me busy lately is working with my administrators and other teachers across the district to align our curriculum. We’re working to share all the work we’ve done throughout the years in order to meet our state standards. While I think it’s a [...]

The Imaginary Classroom: Part Two

My responses to all the comments and questions on the original post The Imaginary Classroom got a litle long, and ended up as this post. My initial post was a little too vague, and needed some more specific examples of what I’d like to see in this imaginary classroom.
I think the overall scope of [...]

The Imaginary Classroom

How do you ask your administration to give you an extra class next year?
I’d like to ask my admins to allow me to teach an extra class next year, and get rid of my prep period. Currently I use my prep period for nothing other than to skip around the net reading the news [...]