The First Weekend

I teach so hard that I sweat. Really. Today, as I paced room 202 wildly emploring my seniors to embrace the Reading Process, my undershirt grew heavy from the sweat. Of course, the room was the hottest room I have ever taught in.
The first week of school has ended, and my wife and I celebrated by going to see the funniest, yet terribly wrong film we've seen in a while--Superbad. We both needed to get our minds off of school. She's been drowning herself in her new position, as have I.
It has been one of those weeks that have come to define my teaching career. One day, I am putting on a brilliant show as one of my administrators look on. The next day, I am struggling to keep them awake as I try to convince them that there is more to reading than decoding the words.
I used an idea that my buddy Michaelis has used the past few years. I had my students create a "this is me" page where they include a photograph and some descriptions of themselves. Two days later, more than a handful of my students still didn't have a photo. I joked that if they didn't bring one in, I'd have to bring my camera in. Later that day I passed one student in the hall. "Hey Mister, would you really bring your camera in? I don't have any photos of me." I'd be lying if I said I believed him--that is until I ran into more students who asked the same thing. Those are my students--very different from my past experiences.