Comments on: Teacher By Day, Everything Else By Night

By: Alice

Alice — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 12:49:27 +0000

Maybe it is because those of us who do poorly in math are intimidated by those who understand it.

I would be interested to know what you think of LA Teen magazine, which was developed by a teacher who thought Latino teenagers needed positive material that would make reading fun. Please shoot me an email and I will send you an advance copy.

By: AmberIfe

AmberIfe — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 23:39:11 +0000

I totally feel you. When I was teaching, one day after school all a bunch of us (teachers) snuck out and went to happy hour. Our prinicpal was yelling after us like “where are you all going!” We were boozing it up at buy one get one for a penny, and all we could think was our students would DIE if they saw us.

And math teachers are way cool. My high school math teacher was the shiznit! He rode a Harley to school, would us really cool proofs and the say “now, THAT turns me on”, and he tried to talk several people into getting y=mx+b tatted on their forearms. I loved that man!

By: Miss Profe

Miss Profe — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 19:03:34 +0000

Jose, my students think the same thing about foreign language teachers. We do travel, however. Isn’t *that* having a life?LOL!

By: talda

talda — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 00:01:43 +0000

hey, i used to swear up and down my teachers lived in the school. of course, this was in elementary school but still.

we were shocked when our 40ish year old 10th grade history teacher showed up to school with pink hair and simply answered our persistent questions with “i lost a bet.” best teacher ever.

By: Harmony

Harmony — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 16:34:54 +0000

You party? You don’t say …

By: LuzMaria

LuzMaria — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 01:16:01 +0000

I never thought of what we do as you so pleasantly put it, “Carnival of Education.” Yes, math teachers are usually labeled by their students-even I have been guilty of said behavior. In general, our students forget that we actually have lives outside of the school building that have absolutely nothing to do with them. If we did not, then we would really go insane because our jobs as educators are extremely challenging every single day. It’s a non-stop carnival and we have the luxury of not knowing what new ride is in store for us any given day. Yet we manage to get on those rides and remain standing. Even though there are days that we need someone to hold us up, just a little.

In general, it is important for us to live and enjoy “our personal” time in order to be a better functioning member of society, educator, daughter, sibling, lover/spouse, friend, parent, and any other hat we wear. One of the things that has resonated for me after reading Defining Moments by Joseph L. Badaracco, Jr. is the following quote: “Daily life, many people feel, is accelerated and fragmented. Managers everywhere are under pressure to provide an action and answers now.” Due to the nature of our jobs, we have the tendecy to be so consumed by them. As a result, we do not have the ability to seperate our personal from our professional life. We are always in a rush, looking at our watches, and sending text messages that many people have forgotten how to have conversations. Or some of us do not know how to be spontaneous because it goes against the ways that we have become programmed.

Thank you for this post, Mr. V.-keeping it real!!!