Donate Now Ms. L had to leave early today, so I ended up covering one of her classes in the afternoon. I was nervous about having my old students again, because I figured that they probably still think of me as the first year teacher I was last year. But the whole “we love Ms.…

Donate Now I am in an infinitely better mood today than yesterday, in large part because my biochemistry test is over and Lauper appears to have finally moved. My kids were much better behaved today, partially because I did a neat demonstration with iron filings under the document camera. I told them that I had…

I am in an extremely bad mood today, since during the Coke vs. Diet Coke Density Lab not one but THREE students totally disregarded my instructions to keep the cans flat on their desk, and their goofing off resulted in dropped cans that exploded all over the lab. Each time I made the kid clean…

I did the seven-layer density column demonstration today, and as always the kids loved it. The thing that I noticed this time around, however, was how many of them were worried about the fact that I was “wasting” the materials in the column – honey, soap, vegetable oil, etc… A couple of them just commented…

I know I’ve already mentioned Darling, the poorly named motormouth who has a habit of taking her entire class down in flames with her ridiculous antics. I’ve been pleasantly Darling-free for the past week because a fight she got into resulted in a classroom removal, which in turn resulted in her class being calm and…

First of all, after I responded to that student yesterday and told her that I stayed home because I was sick and Ms. Rubin is my real name, I got the response: Are you lonely? I guess she was asking if I was lonely without all my students? Still, weird. And she just emailed me…

My perpetual winter cold has temporarily gotten the better of me, so I stayed home and slept all day. I did get this nice email from a student, though: Ms.Rubin, why weren’t you in school today? And what’s your real name?

One nice thing about teaching in a NYC public school is that I got a free flu shot today. I’ve never actually got one before, but I figure I might as well – though I think it might already be too late, as I’ve already been coughing and sniffling for the past week Another nice…

…including the moving chairs, simultaneous talking, and occasional water splashing. Although its a lot less charming when its 30 screaming tweens instead of 4 British gentlemen.

…pation! I have this student named Lauper, and I’m pretty sure he is fundamentally unbalanced in some way. I used to see him last year standing in the hallway a lot, because his sixth grade teacher couldn’t deal with him anymore. I felt kind of bad for him, especially because she used to make him…

I really don’t feel like expounding on the not one but TWO fights that happened today, one of which involved crotch-punching and one of which was between two classes instead of two students. So, here are some pictures instead. Our first bulletin boards were due today, here’s mine: I don’t remember if I told you…

Every morning in first grade the kids work on a phonics curriculum called Fundations. Admittedly, I know next to nothing about teaching little kids how to read, but this curriculum has some pretty weird things in it. For instance, it teaches the letters by having each letter associated with a picture of something that starts…

One of the frustrating things about the demographic of students I teach is that sometimes their parents are harder to deal with than they are. Trying to help some kids is a Sisyphean ordeal, because whatever you try to do in class gets immediately undone as soon as they get home. Some examples: Last year,…

It’s always hard coming back to work after a long weekend, especially when it was pretty much the best weekend ever. However, my day was infinitely brightened by a sweet gesture from a student. I had left my attendance clipboard on the front counter in the lab as I stood in the hall to let…

Today was all set up to be a great day – a field trip with the kiddos instead of the usual classroom combat, then a three day weekend in Boston. Unfortunately, there were some complications… The trip actually started off great. It was to a community college in the Bronx that does a special interactive…

While leaving school today I saw a bunch of scary looking dudes getting patted down by a whole squad of cops with black vans – I’m guessing it was a drug bust? It was sort of in keeping with the nature of the entire day. It turns out the “I’ma a kill you!” kid has…

This morning the first grade teacher greeted her class with, “Good morning, students!” One student enthusiastically replied with “Good morning, my best friend!!” So on that note: Thank you, my best friend Laura, for your chemistry help yesterday! Today’s lesson on phase changes went quicker than expected for one class, so I showed them a…

Yesterday was the unit one test, so today I had fun putting all my students’ data into the official TFA tracker. My first unit test results last year were pretty abysmal, so this year’s 70% average is encouraging. Broken down by standard, there were two that reached the magic 80% mark and two that fell…

Apparently when the first grade teacher I work with entered her classroom this morning, the entire floor (and everything on it) was completely drenched with fetid water. Something or other had obviously burst over the weekend that shouldn’t have. Thankfully the janitors were able to remove the mess and mop the floor before the kids…

And since I am the luckiest girl in the whole wide world, today was also the first middle school dance! I am only just now getting back from chaperoning (read: watching various groups of grinding students get broken up by administrators with flashlights). It actually wasn’t the worst way to spend my birthday, especially because…

In order to build grade unity and cooperation, today the seventh grade went to a ropes course. I was kind of apprehensive about doing activities that rely on trust with certain students, but it was super fun! I always love it when I get to interact with my students in a non-authoritative way, and I…