Tag Archives: teaching

New School Year, New Beginings

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As many of you know, I recently began teaching at a new high school, in a small suburban town west of Boston. It is one of the many once sleepy little towns that has undergone a residential transformation and has been growing at a breakneck rate, like so many suburban towns across America. At least for now it remain nameless here, but I have to tell you, if initial impressions are any indicator at all, I think I found a place to stay for a little while.

At the moment, my current job is so outstanding I keep looking over my shoulder, for fear that Instant Karma is lying in wait ready to “hit [me] right in the face.” I really cannot believe how good I feel about the new place.

I mean, I am a teacher, I don’t expect that will ever change. The topic, level, and material may change, but I am pretty confident that I found my calling as a person, finally. I may have been on to it for awhile and waited, but teaching is the best job I have ever had. I love the kids. I love ideas. I love language. When asked by a new student recently, “Why do you teach?” My response was simply, “It is better than working,” and I believe that. Other than acting, which also still holds an enormously powerful draw (yet sooner or later you have to be able to make a real living and acting really challenges that prospect for all but an extraordinarily small few) I have had no other job where I am willing to put in the kind of hours that I do. Just ask Ali sometime and see what her response is! She recently commented, “So now that the school year started, I don’t get to see you until June, right?” And while that might seem a little exaggerated, you certainly get the idea.

So, after toiling away last year in a place where I was not terribly happy at all and finally was able to reconcile that fact, I really quite stunned at how great I feel at the new place. Of course, I absolutely loved nearly all my students last year, and there is a large group of junior students that burrowed there way so deep in my heart that they are unlikely to ever be removed or forgotten. That is what made it so hard to finally conclude how unhappy I was. But in education, the kids are almost never the problem. It is almost always the other stuff, the environment, the availability of tools and opportunity, but a lot of it comes down to the adults.

Yet in the new school, everyday is a beautiful day. No lie. For starters the environment is absolutely second to none. I work in a building that is practically new. It certainly looks and feels that way, despite being only five years old. The tools that are available to me are also completely first class. For starters, I have more shelving and storage space than I have ever had. I have a brand new Dell computer, complete with flat screen monitor, and a pretty solid set of speakers, all on a mobile cart-like desk that also holds a VCR. All of this is tied into the wall for network access, but more than that so I can display it all on monitor suspended from the ceiling, which I believe to be about a 29” or thereabouts. I even have my own printer on that table that rolls! I also have another normal desk that is completely separate, buy the way, so all that tech gear doesn’t crowd up the work space. I mean, seriously, in terms of hardware, the only thing I don’t have is a permanently mounted LCD projector, and I am certainly not about to lament that fact. Oh, did I forget to mention, the large overhead monitor also has cable. I am seriously considering the purchase of a used La-Z-Boy and dropping it off in the room!

Then there are the adults. And I have to say everyone I have met has been warm and welcoming. There is a level of friendly professionalism that confidently demonstrates that this is an elite high school, as it also made the Newsweek list of America’s Best, but there is none of the smugness or elitism that such recognition can result. All indications, at least right now, are that people know what they are doing and are doing it well, but are still continuing to look for ways that they can do things better, make the school better, serve the kids better. Too often a lot of the things I just mentioned quickly become little more than lip service. So, to be in place where there seems to be such a genuine team atmosphere among the staff seems luxurious, to say the least.

We’ll see what I have to say in six months or so, but as for now I am not sure I couldn’t be happier. Plus, after being forced to surrender my head coaching position with my young group of Jewish lads at the private school (due to the commute), I have had quite an exciting time with my first time coaching an all girl’s soccer team. I took over a team of freshmen girls and it has been quite a change, but more on that another time.

Our Trip to the MFA with Some Happy Thanks Given

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After a couple weeks of delay, Ali and I finally got out to the Museum of Fine Arts, something I had been wanting to do for some time. Yet with the term coming to an end last week, I had to get out from beneath the mountain of papers that demanded my immediate attention. We went primarily to see the special Ansel Adams exhibition, but also to catch a glimpse of the rest of the museum.

Photo: Me with MFA Map Photo: Ali Admiring Some Art

Despite the throngs of people that were coursing through the special exhibition, it was a fascinating and beautiful show of the master’s work. Even Ali mentioned that the crowds were a bit ridiculous, commenting on how we were four deep at times to look at a photograph that is smaller than a standard 8×10. Fortunately, there were a few prints that were worthy of the large format camera of which Adams was so fond. The trip paid dividends as Adams was heavily influenced by Transcendentalists Emerson and Thoreau, which I am coincidentally teaching currently.

Photo: MFA Rotunda

Photo: MFA Hall of Paintings

One of the real treats of the trip, however, met us right after we arrived and were waiting for our admittance into the Adams exhibit. While roaming around the museum, we happened upon an older woman that works for the museum and was there perchance on an off day for some reason. Well, after I set off a warning alarm for leaning in too closely to appreciate the fine marquetry on an ancient Asian piece of furniture, this woman came round the corner and asked us if something was wrong. She quickly informed me that I was indeed to close and that she too had found herself victim to the warning system. Before we knew it she was asking us questions and leading the two of us on a kind of mini private tour. It was fascinating and thoroughly engrossing as she drew us through a contemporary Japanese ceramics exhibit which yielded the pictures below. It was magnificent stuff to be sure. Hopefully the photographs bear that. That box and crumpled newspaper are ceramic! How the hell the artist made these two pieces out of clay none of us had a clue. The other piece was simply a must photograph. Anyway, this lady was positively delightful. We really got lucky bumping into her, and how she loved her workplace.

Photo: Ceramic Crumpled Newpaper Photo: Ceramic Pineapple Box

Photo: Ceramic Rump

In other news, Ali is still desperately awaiting the completion of her engagement ring’s carving. Her enthusiasm is routinely bubbling to the surface. Since she cannot actually wear the ring that I used to propose, as seen below, she has taken to wearing what she calls a training ring. Although, I have to figure we will be hearing from the lovely Jade Moran in short order. The only problem is that I think that might really shift Ali into hyper-drive. With the way she is chomping at the bit of late, to know that the process is so close to completion might be too much for her. She has sworn me to letting her know when the call comes, however. I just don’t want her to explode. I’ll keep you posted.

Photo: Engagement Ring

Other than that, I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving!

New Teacher Trials

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As I progress further in my young teaching career I have begun to recognize more challenges than anticipated, making the journey rougher than I had hoped. As Ali mentioned to me the other day, “You are learning too. Obviously you are very intelligent and know a lot of stuff. But now your at that point where it’s starting to dawn on you just how much you really don’t know and you are starting to get a little panicked.” Of course this is all true and despite having recognized this on my own to a great extent, hearing it from her really slammed it home.

I am indeed a young teacher, never mind my age and experience in the world. Even though I have taught many different things for many years, I have not been faced with the day in day out full-time grind that my current position presents. Add the fact that I had almost no preparation before jumping into the fire and I am beginning to feel rather sauted right about now. My feet are definitely showing a fine caramel color.

In some ways, I have to keep reminding myself that it is a somewhat impossible situation. I arrived in a classroom with a new curriculum, new students, little grounding in the school’s culture, and a charter to teach them something. So, I am constantly faced with the very real challenge of trying to stay a step ahead of the students, already in the swing of things, on a day to day basis. Having no idea what I was going to be teaching until I arrived puts me a bit behind in the content department.

Honestly, I have to teach some books that I either have not read, or have not read in so long, it is as if I have not read them. It is rather difficult to plan for great depth of understanding when, in some ways, I am navigating my way through the material right along with the students. Working backwards and developing overarching questions and understanding based on content I have yet to get through is an uphill struggle. Often, it is in the anticipation where I feel the most ill-prepared. I guess that makes sense given the circumstances.

Still, teaching is strange alchemy. Many of the problems I have yet to solve will be much easier the next time around. I will not always be faced with little idea of the material. Plus, there are certain things that must be taught, regardless of content. It really just comes down to lacking that universal currency that has everyone feeling overdrawn, time. Although effectively managing through scarcity is a skill needed for success in any endeavor.

Yet, the job can be extraordinarily fun at times, presenting great problems to deconstruct and solve, fascinating things to research that I may not have been familiar with from my high school experience, and some of the students are just downright entertaining human beings. Sure they are not exactly fully formed yet, still wet and misshapen with only glimmers of adulthood. But some of them have a deft touch for mixing the sophomoric with the subtle and packaging it with a razor delivery. There hasn’t been a day that has passed where I didn’t laugh, even if it sometimes is at one or more of them and secretly to myself.

Apart from the normal adolescent angst and rebellion, combined with complete resistance or apathy toward anything and everything having to do with school, they can be quite charming and interesting individuals. It is a strange irony that people who have lived long enough and are not regularly exposed to teenagers miss. Of course not every student bears these defiant inclinations. Some even seem genuinely interested in what we might be studying. I rarely expect this to happen. However, it is always pleasantly surprising, considering I have a tendency to get completely engrossed with fascination by most of the literature we read. I suppose this might have something to do with me having a passion about learning. It might even be linked to the fact that I am a teacher.