It's finally time for teachers to take a load off. It seems like this semester has been rough for everyone, and every teacher who taught this fall needs a well-deserved break to catch up on their sleep. So many people give teachers crap about having a summer and a winter break . They think that because their office job is all year long, they must work harder than anyone who gets a considerable period of time off. What those people don't know is that teachers have to spend a lot of their breaks…

Teachers deserve so much more respect than they get, and I am partly to blame for this. When I was in high school , I wasn't blatantly rude to my teachers, but I did not give the educators in my life the respect they probably deserved. For instance, I called every single one of my teachers Senior year by their first names, either behind their backs or to their faces, depending on how close we were. Out of Barb, Cathy, John, Paul, Linda, and Kelly, I could only call Barb by her first name to her…

It's nearly as American as apple pie to have some sort of elaborate prank rock your high school. But at Edward R. Murrow in Brooklyn, there was pretty much only one. The old “5th floor pool” prank. Upperclassmen would hand out maps on the first day of school that touted a massive, Olympic-sized pool, complete with changing rooms and showers. Of course the incoming freshmen were giddy about this development. There was just one problem: the pool didn't exist. As school-aged pranks go, I've always…

Those who were never band kids don't know how much spit is involved. Sure, other extracurriculars like baseball might inspire youths to become chronic spitters, but the school band takes it to a new level. If you play a woodwind instrument, you've got to moisten your reed up with spit, and if you don't, it will probably sound not very good. If you play a brass instrument, you have a "spit valve." When you play your instrument, the moisture from your lips travels through your instrument and buil…

One of the hardest parts of being a teacher is that the work keeps coming and never stops coming . At a normal job, you clock in at 9 and leave at 5 without having to do extensive planning for days to come during the time you're not in the office. When you're a teacher, it's a completely different story. There's never time for not working. You have to grade papers, answer emails, create new assignments, work on lesson plans, meet with higher-ups, and that's not to mention having to teach classe…

It's like it was just yesterday

Well… back to school season is officially over. The novelty of new classes and the burgeoning fall semester has more than wore off, and teachers and students are finally back at the old grind. If you are a teacher, you've probably got an idea of how the rest of the school year is going to go down. Or do you? You might think you've got a pretty solid read on your new classes, but who knows! There's a lot of days in between now and June. This school year hold so many possibilities. But then again…

We're not equipped

Time to get a pretzel at Aunty Anne's

Almost every high school has its fair share of urban legends. Most of our revolved around creepy teachers, but there were also stories of haunted libraries and supply closets, after-hours hookups, and unfortunate boners that may or may not have, uh, made themselves known. My high school was pretty tame in both this department and the prank department. Our wildest form of mischief came in the form of handing freshmen maps of the school that included a fifth floor pool. There was no fifth floor,…

When you're in high school, you have very little freedom. One of the few choices you can make for yourself is which trapper keeper you get from Staples. This is a critical decision, as that multiuse binder won't break for at least three years, so you better make the right choice. The question of “which binder color should I choose for which subject” was never one that phased me. I simply picked the binders with the prettiest colors and chose which subjects they were for based on ambiguous vibes…

Procrastination 101

This was ambitious to be honest…

Teaching is one of the most misunderstood professions. Teachers sacrifice their time and energy for their students and are rarely compensated for what they deserve. Unlike many pointless email jobs, teachers actually create tangible good in society through their work. It's essential for kids to not only have great educators but great role models in their corner and teachers wear both hats. If you're a teacher, you already know all of that. What you also likely know is that there is a special hu…

Wild

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