New Teacher Diaries

A shoebox of success stories

The final question on my second-year New York City Teaching Fellows survey had lingered around the corners of my consciousness for the entire week: “What has been your biggest success over the past two years?”

New Teacher Diaries on Edwize

New York City teachers in their first and second years on the job chronicle their experiences on the UFT blog.

The question on everyone’s lips

A new teacher reflects on the question that many first-year educators are asking themselves as the school year winds down.

What I’ll take with me

When evaluating her first year in teaching, an educator wonders if her kids are better off because she was their teacher.

A raisin in the sun

It was the most blissful kind of brief silence I have ever experienced in a classroom.

Uncle Sam wants my student

Stephanie isn’t usually very academic, but today she taught me about yet another standardized test.

What teaching is really about

It’s no secret that there’s a major problem with teacher retention in this country.

How learning happens

A new teacher feels he and his colleagues should be teaching stuff students don’t yet know, because that is how learning happens.

The verb pipe

I had a gut feeling that I would be observed again today. As it turns out, I wasn’t, but I wish I had been.

Tone is a many splendored thing

It is a 1st-grade teacher's wish that when her students leave her for 2nd grade, they will remember that in their classroom “caring was a many splendored thing.”

Boogie noun

Today I felt it for the first time. It happened in a brief, shimmering instant during my last-period 1st-grade ESL class, which is stuffed to the brim with adorable, excitable kids who cannot sit still or keep their mouths shut long enough even for me to bribe them with stickers.

Are we primitive?

For years as a student I felt as though my own education was primitive, stifling to my creativity and failing to engage me.

Tiny victories

A new teacher who has had problems getting her class settled down long enough to accomplish anything has a breakthrough.

Yelling and teaching

My husband was at a loss when he came home one May afternoon and found me curled up in a ball, crying my eyes out and calling myself everything from “incompetent” to “a bad person.”

Entering the year with great expectations

In August, a friend from college casually inquired, “So, do you think you’ll survive year two of teaching kindergarten?” Her question got me thinking: Is that what I did last year? Survive?

When the struggles are worth it

At the conclusion of her second year of teaching, a young educator has learned that success can be measured in different ways

Keeping my head above water

No matter my level of exasperation, no matter how much I’d like to close my eyes and wish my students away, my students will still be there when I open my eyes and I had better have a plan — a good plan — to get through each day without losing my mind.

Reaching Jigme

On the first day of school, it became clear that Jigme spoke very little English and by the second day it seemed that he was coping by acting out. He was aggressive with other students and defiant toward me. My feelings of frustration and bewilderment, I’m sure, came through and, coupling this with their own confusion and frustration, the other children quickly began to ostracize Jigme. I was horrified but in the dark about how to change this dynamic.

Learning through trips

Some of my high school students have never left Brooklyn. This scares me. Does this mean they never will?

Seeing the big picture

In celebration of Women’s History Month in March, the 14 girls in a new teacher's 9th-grade advisory spent the month looking at their lives though different lenses — camera lenses, to be specific.

Taking part in Lobby Day made union come to life

On Tuesday, March 13, I attended my first UFT Lobby Day in Albany. It was more than an educational experience. For the first time in my teaching career, I really felt like I belonged to a union. Lobby Day made the union come to life for me.

Learning from parents

During my year and a half of teaching ESL in a Brooklyn middle school, I’ve learned a great deal from the parents of my students.

Treating kids fairly — but not the same

A new teacher has come to realize that in order to get the results that she desires from her students, she not only need to be aware of their different learning modalities, but she also need to be familiar with their personal needs.

Show me the colors

A young man asked me for a dictionary that he could take back to his dorm. The only dictionary I had was a hard cover and the guards only allow soft-cover materials to return with these young men to their housing unit. Teaching in an environment with court-involved youth requires tremendous discretion. Everything is a potential weapon, from ballpoint pens to plastic cups to sharpies.

Taking things personally

How much trust should students put in their teachers? It seems that when students don’t trust that you have their best interests at heart, then they don’t give you much respect. This lack of respect comes in all different shapes and sizes. I guess trust and respect go hand-in-hand in my mind.

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