New Orleans
Guest Post by Abby Fendler: In Memory of Ronnie
Today’s guest post is by Abby Fendler, a former student at Metairie Park Country Day School. Earlier this week, Ronnie Frazier, Buildings and Grounds Supervisor, unexpectedly passed away, shocking the entire MPCDS community. While Ronnie wasn’t officially a teacher, he sure did mentor a lot of people. That man touched lives….
Lessons From 6th Grade Health Class
The other day Monkey came home wanting to know how old I was when I learned about HIV/AIDS. …
Lessons From The Dance Floor
For the record, the last time I went clubbing was when I lived in New Orleans back in the 1990’s, so you can imagine my surprise when I learned that there is, in fact, a joint less than five miles from my home where I could actually get down and get funky….
Contemplating Quitting The Classroom
I have been thinking that this will be my last semester in the classroom. It’s been a hard year for a variety of reasons, but I have been thinking I just am not connecting with my students the way I used to. Part of it may be that I am getting older. I have somehow become an “old-fashioned teacher” who doesn’t show movies, rely on Smart Boards or Power Point presentations. In other words, I have always been able to “be my own show,” create my own bells and whistles, and that was enough. I was enough.
This year is different. I feel… old….
The Problem With Mirows
When hubby and I lived in New Orleans, we kind of came to accept that conventional spelling (and even pronunciation) was often up for grabs.
When it came time for us to move North, we hired a few packers to help us with the job. They were nice gentlemen. Plump and slow and toothless, too. But Worker Bee #1 and Worker Bee #2 toiled tirelessly in the June heat to help us prepare for our move, and we appreciated their assistance.
When our moving van arrived in New York State 15 days later (long story as to why it took so long, but let’s just suffice it to say that United Van Lines paid us to move), we eventually came upon one strangely enormous bundle labeled “mirows,” that had us stumped….
Pep Talk For New Teachers
1. Don’t take things too personally. You have to know this up front. Your students are going to talk about. If you are lucky, they will say nice things like, “I like Mr. X’s hair,” or “Ms. Q. is kinda cool.” More likely, you will overhear them in the halls: “(Insert your name here) is unfair. Not flexible. Boring. Biased. Unqualified.” Let’s face it. Not every student is going to die for your class. Not every student is going to find the Quadratic equation fascinating. Not every student is going to care about conjugating verbs. They won’t all be interested in Mendelian genetics. Some of them won’t like your unit on Lord of the Flies, or insects, or rain forests. Listen to their comments, glean from them what you will, and then let them go. This is especially true for teachers of older students when you receive your first batch of student evaluations….