February 2007
	Web Confessions

The Many Moods of Teacher Blogs

A struggling student grasps a new concept. A parent calls to thank you for the extra help you gave her child. Your lesson plan is met with vacant stares. The emotional highs and lows of the average school day could shatter a mood ring, but at least now you know you’re not alone. Hundreds of your fellow educators are blogging about the triumphs, trip-ups, and trivialities of the teaching life to match the many moods of you.

Disheartened

From 5:30 p.m. until 8 p.m., I sat at my desk with only the hum of the heating system to keep me company. Not one of my 13 students had a parent show up. Not after all my calling, my cajoling, my coaxing and mailed letters home. I returned home stunned, hollow, and a lot more wise about why my emotionally disturbed students may have such intense behavior issues.

—Yeah, That’ll Teach You a Lesson

Appreciative

One of the janitors came back to my room at night and fixed my printer. The same janitors [who] instantly clean up bodily fluid, fix broken lightbulbs, close my windows when I forget, climb ladders to get Jose off of the roof when he decides it would be a good idea to hang out up there, and rescue me when I get trapped in the school yard are now fixing my computers. Janitors are the unsung heroes of my classroom.         

 —Closing the Gap in NYC

Childish

It’s a bummer having to grow up and be responsible and not be half as selfish.

—Happychyck

Worldly

Friday was Teacher’s Day in Turkey. I guess it started because at some point in his history, Ataturk was a teacher....New teachers finish their internship periods and take an oath on teacher’s day, and become “real” teachers.

—Ögretmen

Observant

Overheard in the hallway: “These teachers act like they run this place!”

—Today’s Homework

Old

Today a student asked me if I’d ever heard of the song “Ghostbusters.”… I started singing it….Trying to make a connection with me, she says, “Yeah, I like to listen to old-fashioned songs a lot, too.”

—Apples to Apples

Insecure

Sometimes it’s so hard to not feel personally insulted when students are bored, or they think an assignment is “dumb.”…I want all my students to like me, listen to me and trust me—but that’s not always the case.

—Edwize

Motherly

Your first year is not going to be easy. It’s a little like having a newborn baby—you’re sleep deprived, and your schedule is all messed up. You have…responsibility for…little people that need constant care and attention and tend to emit loud, howling cries despite your best attempts to anticipate and respond to them…. There ought to be a new diagnosis for PNTD: Post New Teacher Depression. Brooke Shields could bring it into the public awareness by appearing on Oprah and Tom Cruise could tell all new teachers just to take vitamins.

—Amy Loves Books

Solipsistic

• I am angered by people who work in education but don’t seem to like kids.
• I love sneaking “Buttered Popcorn” jellybeans out of my desk drawer during class.
• I need whiteboards that actually erase.
• I like putting up bulletin boards in my classroom. Am I a freak?
• I care about the state of public schools.

—One Hundred Farmers

Prudent

My co-teacher and I have a system for the pencil-less: We provide a stubby, little golf pencil for the period, but only if the borrower gives us something of value first....At the end of the period, the student gets her iPod (or whatever) back and we get our pencil. Since we instituted this system, we haven’t lost a single pencil from our box.

—California Teacher Guy

Paranoid

I’m afraid the mere mention of the ridiculous goings-on at my place of employment will somehow alert my administrators to the fact that I’m, quite literally, telling tales out of school, they will track me down, and I’ll be fired on the spot. This is, of course, completely insane, as the administrator to whom I report cannot even run a PowerPoint presentation…. 

—Edumacational

Triumphant

I have a 13-year-old student with mental retardation who is learning to count by 5s….Some days, it feels like a lost cause….But as we sat down for math class today, he called me over for “a surprise.” He counted a handful of nickels on his own all the way to 45 cents. I was floored. And then he says…I practiced all weekend when I was herding sheep....I didn’t let myself stop practicing until I got home with the sheep.”

—On the Reservation