nyctf

A Case for the Dinosaurs

by Jose 10.19.2009

One day, a group of educators, including myself, was having a conversation about veterans of the NYC public school system when one of my colleagues said something to the effect of, “You see what happened to the dinosaurs right? They didn’t adapt, so of course, they became extinct.” We all blurted out a laugh, especially [...]

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A Letter To A New NYC Teaching Fellow

by Jose 08.05.2008

My first pearl of wisdom to you: be a student first, teacher second. You’ve just gotten in, or you’ve been finishing up your summer training for the Fellows, and you’re wondering where to start. You probably Googled for NYCTF and ran into my site (hopefully) or any assortment of ed bloggers that either give constructive [...]

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The Vilson Manifesto

by Jose 02.05.2008

The one question every person in this profession faces is the ubiquitous “Why do you teach?” (The most recent comes from Sherman Dorn). It comes from kids, parents, friends, and family. I don’t know whether it’s out of pride or pity. Everyone can list their favorite teachers and most hated teachers, and those people usually [...]

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Welcome to the Jungle

by Jose 09.03.2007

Less than a month ago, The Village Voice published an article about the NYC Teaching Fellows entitled “Your Own Personal Blackboard Jungle” by Stacy Cowley and Neil deMause. Basically, it discusses the hardships that so many fellows go through in the NYC Public School system, and lay much of the fault on the rather accelerated [...]

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Crazy Eights

by Jose 08.03.2007

Borrowed from J. Dakar: The Rules: 1. We have to post these rules before we give you the facts. 2. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves. 3. People who are tagged write their own blog post about their eight things and include these rules. 4. At the end of your blog, you need [...]

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The Full Circle

by Jose 06.20.2007

I love existential titles; don’t you? Well two days ago, I completed my greatest public speaking gig I’ve ever had. I spoke for the NYC Teaching Fellows in front of 2000 or so people, most of which were new teachers in the program. I was anxious about 10 minutes before I had to make the [...]

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