He assigns the pages and when class convenes he understands in short order that only a few kids have bothered to do the reading. The age old dilemma of the high school English teacher: what can be done if kids won’t read, not can’t, but won’t or don’t? Reading everything in class, either out loud or in silence willContinue reading “#303: The American English Teacher Strategizes for Kids Who Don’t Read”
Category Archives: Teaching
#294: How Woke?
Substitute plans laid out in plain sight and handouts ready that should keep my sophomores honest and hard at work, I head off this morning to a professional workshop in a district populated by mostly white kids and staffed by mostly white adults to have brave conversations about race. Even while the graduation rate forContinue reading “#294: How Woke?”
#288: Classes I Could Teach
I’ve been a school teacher for a very long time but I never did get to teach the classes I think students really need. Here’s a short list of my best work, potentially, as an educator: Be Really Quiet 101 How Not to Be an Ass Favorite Words for Beginners Advanced Favorite Words Poems forContinue reading “#288: Classes I Could Teach”
#284: The American English Teacher Tries Not to Be Afraid While Doing His Job
Two nights ago I woke up at 3 a.m. and could not go back to sleep. It was not a nightmare that woke me. Just some disturbance in the force that momentarily stirred me from slumber. Immediately upon opening my eyes, though, a waking nightmare: I was thinking about those kids in Florida, and I wasContinue reading “#284: The American English Teacher Tries Not to Be Afraid While Doing His Job”
Diary of an English Teacher in His Penultimate Year: February 15, 2018
Today I wrapped up three full days of sitting with my senior IB English students, listening to their oral commentaries on a poem by Seamus Heaney and holding discussions with them about Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own and Toni Morrison’s Beloved. I sat with almost 25 students, just me and the kid, one at a time, forContinue reading “Diary of an English Teacher in His Penultimate Year: February 15, 2018”
Diary of an English Teacher in His Penultimate Year: December 9, 2017
I realize now that it might be possible to misunderstand the title of this blog series. I just want to make clear right out of the gate that our narrator is not talking about his penultimate year on the planet. Nope. He’s pretty healthy, save for some high blood pressure (which he is working toContinue reading “Diary of an English Teacher in His Penultimate Year: December 9, 2017”
Diary of an English Teacher in His Penultimate Year: December 5, 2017
And now for something completely different. I’ve been doing this “Penultimate Year” series now since August, and typically post about once a month, but today the urge to scribble arrived for the second consecutive day. Today, the day after my birthday, felt more like a birthday. I mean, I celebrated a little bit last nightContinue reading “Diary of an English Teacher in His Penultimate Year: December 5, 2017”
Diary of an English Teacher in His Penultimate Year: December 4, 2017
It’s a Monday and it’s my birthday. None of my students knew and I didn’t bother to tell them. It was a rough day. Last night, I stayed up too late. This morning, and all day really, I was suffering as a result. My cold’s getting better, I think, or, at least, no worse. ButContinue reading “Diary of an English Teacher in His Penultimate Year: December 4, 2017”
Diary of an English Teacher in His Penultimate Year: November 29, 2017
I am feeling under the weather. But I am not so far gone as to have to call in sick. I need to keep resting, continue with my abstinence from adult beverages for a couple more days, try not to worry. I got some paperwork from the Oregon Public Employee Retirement System, a request forContinue reading “Diary of an English Teacher in His Penultimate Year: November 29, 2017”
Diary of an English Teacher in His Penultimate Year: November 2, 2017
It’s parent/teacher conference day (yippee!), wherein we teachers sit for 7 hours in uncomfortable chairs in front of uncomfortable cafeteria benches in the commons while parent after parent, sometimes with students in tow, line up to have short, five-minute, uncomfortable conversations with us. It’s not as bad as all that. Not all these conversations areContinue reading “Diary of an English Teacher in His Penultimate Year: November 2, 2017”
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