How to Teach at My School

1. Expect that your schedule will not stay the same. Stay calm when, three weeks into the school year, you're given a class of 8th graders. (My first year- I had 3 classes swapped out, with no notice. At least I had a day this time.)

2. Accept that you'll be spending hundreds of your own dollars on copies.

3. Stay out of "mess."

4. Do not spend too much time in the faculty lounge. Any energy and enthusiasm you do have will begin to dissolve the more adult whining you are exposed to.

5. Keep a hard copy of your gradebook. For all the technology grants, there are some serious holes.

6. Bring an extra jacket.

7. Befriend the disciplinarian.

8. Be. Very. Specific. "You just said sentences, you didn't say sentences that showed we understood the word." *Sigh.*

9. Subtly show that you know hip hop music without overtly admitting that you listen to it.

10. Don't expect too much to make sense.