Who are these kids???

You'll need to know a bit about my students to understand the blog a bit better. My students are a little bit of everything. They're so often categorized as low-income, disadvantaged, at-risk, poor, dumb, unteachable, animals (yes, I hear people say that all the time!) among many others.

More often than not, they're outrageously underestimated and misunderstood. Statistically, I teach in one of the worst areas of the Bronx. We have kids ranging from high school readers to non-readers; kids who haven't left the Bronx to kids who just left their home island, English, Spanish, French, Bengali Bosnian and Hindi speaking students; athletes and bookworms. You get the point.

Even as poverty, language and socio-economic status play vital roles in shaping them into who they are becoming, I think, more often than not, most of these kids have been playing the role of ignored, unloved or failure for so long that it's become their self-fulfilling prophecies.

I've compiled a list below to let you get to know them a bit better.

• lovable and unloved
• ambitious and angry
• funny and farty
• smellies and smarties
• disadvantaged and disappointed
• yearning and sometimes learning
• hopeful and happy
• misunderstood and miserable
• clueless and creative
• abused and abusing
• hungry and obese
• superficial and superfly
• dreamless and dreaming

Selected Student Quotes 3.12.09

"You're the best!"

"You're the most boring teacher ever!"

"Everything is about money."

"It's thursday, what the f*** am I doing in school?"

"Are you gonna make the pizza for us?"

"I wanna make history!"

Who AM I????

Who am I? Look, if I wanted fame or fortune for writing a tell-all, I would attach my name and be making personal visits to publishing houses in New York. I AM NOT DOING THAT!

I will not give information that will lead you to find out my identity or the identity of my colleagues. After all, everyone discussed in this blog has a family and a life outside of school of which I do not intend to destroy. Teaching is, in fact, their livelihood...and mine.

Please do not try to find out where I teach or about whom I am speaking. I may, at times, change the gender, names of students and adults, and irrelevant information about those discussed to protect their identities. However, I PROMISE not to change, embellish or rewrite the content of life inside a Bronx public school.

MORE ABOUT ME
I am a second career teacher trying to do my best everyday to make a positive impact on my students. This is not my first year teaching. I've been teaching for a few years and have been around long enough to know how things work. I try to be a good person in every aspect of my life, attend religious services regularly, and try to make the most out of life.

FOR THE RECORD!

As I start this blog, I am wondering, as I know you are too, why am I writing this blog? What are my motivations? I want to put a few things out there...FOR THE RECORD!

There are highs and lows in teaching. I want to write this blog because I have yet to hear an extensive, honest attempt at explaining exactly what goes on in public schools, especiallly urban public schools. We all hear small pieces of the puzzle, but this blog will attempt to put the pieces together so the full, honest picture can be seen by those outside (and inside) the profession.

I have no ambition to trash public schools. I want to make them better. I want teachers to be heard by those making policy. I want teachers to be included in making policy; afterall, we are the ones "on the front line."

I want people to care about the kids in these schools because the kids are all our kids. They as a generation are going to responsible for taking care of us when we are old. While many of my students may be perceived as the trouble of society, like any lump of coal, they can turn into diamonds!

I hope you enjoy reading the blog and feel free to email this to your friends and colleagues! And don't forget to email me if you have questions or comments!

Enjoy the ride! I am!