Hello friends, family, and strangers (I flatter myself)! I am a recently-graduated girl finding my way in the "real world" (apparently, I've been floating around the fake world for the past two decades). Many of my friends' "real world"s consist of cubicles, nine-to-fives, marriage, babies, and other such grown-up things. My real world looks a little different. Yes, I still get up and go to work every morning, same as they do. But instead of battling fax machines, computer programs, disgruntled spouses and dirty diapers, I arm myself against a legion of 14-year-old boys. Well, 83 of them to be exact. You see, I teach 8th-grade boys' Science in an inner-city, high-poverty school. What it is not: glamorous, prestigious, boring. What it is: humorous, heartbreaking, and the most challenging thing I will ever do.

The stories I tell and the people I describe are real; you can't make this stuff up. If you are new to my blog, I hope you'll start at the beginning and fall in love with its characters, just as I have.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

One, two, three...boards up! BOARDS DOWN.

Got observed today for my evaluation.

Probably shouldn't have planned my first go-around with individual white boards for the same day...

The idea is that each kid gets a mini dry-erase board to record their answers on so when they hold them up, I can get a whole-class summary of their understanding (or lack thereof).

The assistant principal was sitting in the wings, clipboard in hand, pen poised above her paper.

"Ok, I need to know the number of protons in an atom of Lithium.........One, two, three...BOARDS UP!!!" Among several 3s, there was also a "u sexy," an "i love u," a "Merry Christmas!" and a "ANTHONY IS GAY."

Thank you, Anthony. Thank you, Willie, Quadarius and Jonathan. I'm sure you'll be among the many "concerns" brought up at my post-obs debriefing.
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1 comment:

  1. A fly on the wallNovember 4, 2010 at 6:52 AM

    Oh my gosh...I LOVE this!!! bahahahaha!!! I think "U sexy" is by far my favorite...I'm sure yours too! :)

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