Category Archives: back to school

Welcome Back to School

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As I write this, it’s still a few days until I start back to work.  As you read this, I am in class welcoming students for another year of learning about US History.  This is my seventeenth year teaching and I’m looking forward to it– in some ways more than ever, in some ways less.  I have a new classroom this year.  There is a new syllabus (the stuff we teach), and every year brings its own change.  I’m really wondering about class sizes.  We’ve had a lot of people move away from southern Henderson, but that doesn’t necessarily mean fewer kids per teacher– and my new classroom has 39 student desks!  Yikes!  I’ll keep you up to date.  Have a great Autumn everyone.

Back in the Classroom

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Well, I’ve been back in the classroom for a week now, and I have to say that it looks like a pretty good start to the school year. The kids look bright and I’m feeling full of energy, at least until I get home. This of course is not my classroom. Mine is crammed full of desks so that there is no room for a piano, let alone all that room up front for the teacher to move around it. I’ll post some pics of my classroom next week.

No Pencils or Paper

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More and more, students are not arriving to class with school supplies. Part of this is that times are getting tough, but another part is that children are less and less aware of their needs and supplies. (This is also evidenced by the number of jackets, books, and even iPods that the kids just leave behind.) I decided that this year, rather than fighting it, I would just give a pencil to every kid who needed one. The end of the first quarter is a week away yet, and I have already gone through 432 pencils.

Doctors, Lawyers, and Teachers

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If a doctor, lawyer, or dentist had 40 people in his office at one time, all of whom had different needs, and some of whom didn’t want to be there and were causing trouble, and the doctor, lawyer, or dentist, without assistance, had to treat them all with professional excellence for nine months, then he might have some conception of the classroom teacher’s job. ~Donald D. Quinn

Back to School

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Yesterday I, like many teachers around the country, came back to school after a brief rest period. In my case, it was very brief as I taught summer school for six weeks. The students won’t arrive until Monday, so three days to get everything set up and ready for them. So if you know a teacher, be nice to them this week, and the next few weeks too.