Memories from my 2nd year

I am often reminded that there's only so much I can do as a teacher.

Here are two stories from last week - neither happened to me (but I'm sure I can come up with a few).

Misha, the 8th grade higher algebra teacher, was checking Emilio's homework. Emilio had written 3 + √1 (square root of 1). She asked him to simplify his answer. He responded, "But I don't have my calculator." She said, "Okay, I'm going to turn around, and when I turn back, we'll have pretended you didn't just say that."

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The 8th grade English teacher, James, was reading Walt Whitman's "O Captain, My Captain" with one of his classes. He reminded them of metaphorical imagery and discussed with them the extended metaphor of captain and ship as Abraham Lincoln and the Union/United States. He asked the class why Whitman would choose this particular metaphor -- captain of a ship -- to commemorate Lincoln.

After thinking about it, Sam raised his hand and said, "Well...the Civil War did happen overseas. Maybe he just wanted to commemorate sea battles."

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One of the only "moments" that comes to mind right now is from my 10th grade class. I laughed in those classes with the students almost every day, feeling a rapport that I'm not sure I'll ever match. One of my successes, I think, is the fact that the students felt least comfortable with poetry essays at the beginning of the year and more comfortable with poetry than prose at the end. Robert - a student who places English near the bottom of his least-liked classes - told me, "I think I can understand poetry now." Stephen said that reading John Donne was one of his "formative experiences" (and yes, those were his words - that's Stephen). Molly and Blake, the Physics maniacs, even joined Creative Writing and became two of my best writers.


Blake in one of his many soulful moments, with Molly and Cate.


This "moment" occurred when reading I think a Yeats poem, and discussing the literary devices he'd used. When I agreed that a certain set of images was metaphorical, Duncan disagreed, and we proceeded to argue our various sides (wish I could remember what the poem was!). Anyway, suffice it to say that I won, using the definition of metaphor and another example, to which Duncan, conceding, replied, "I hate you, Ms. Harings."

Of course, later that week he invited me to Roller Derby, and is consistently one of the students who just "hangs out" in my classroom after school, so I don't think that was said with too much heat. He's also the student who will raise his hand in class and say, "This reminds me of a Violent Femmes lyric" or "of a dream I had on Saturday night." Which -- shh - I find just as amusing as the students.

* * *

It's sad how quickly my memories of events from this year are fading. I wish I'd kept up with this blog throughout the year - although for those who spoke to me this year, I was happy to get sleep and have more of a social life (discovered all kinds of restaurants and curiosity shops just blocks away!) - but I'm going to try again.

This year was oh, a zillion times better than last. I did not miss teaching middle school, though it was fun to catch up with the eighth graders (my former seventh graders) once a week when I substituted for the overscheduled 8th grade English teacher. They suddenly all loved me because I no longer gave them homework assignments and I reminded them of their halcyon days of yore (last year), when of course everything was better/easier.

I taught 9th grade Honors World Literature, a separate 9th grade Writing and Critical Analysis course, 10th grade AP British Literature, and Creative Writing. Next year I'll also teach a senior seminar on Post-Colonial literature, film, and art. I think my 10th graders rocked the AP exam (with a few notable exceptions), but the results are TBD.


Julia Toews, the 11th grade teacher, and I re-creating the "stressed out look" popular at BASIS Tucson Upper School.


For two years in a row, BASIS Tucson has made Newsweek's top ten high schools in the nation list (#3 last year, #6 this year) based on the number of AP exams our students take. This is not surprising, since all students at BASIS - without exception - are required to sit 6 AP exams, and to take at least 8 AP courses. The idea is that all students, regardless of ability, will benefit from taking college-level courses even if they receive low scores on the exams. They will be better prepared for college and college testing practices, and they will have the study skills they need to survive in college. Since our school has only graduated four classes of seniors, though, we're still not recognized by most elite colleges and universities as a distinguished college prep school. This year our two top students broke some of the barriers and will be entering Williams College in Mass. and Emory University in Georgia. I imagine -- and hope -- that the trend continues, since the students in our school are light years more prepared for college than I was. It took me a year of guiding from various professors before I learned how to study and how to write a proper college-level paper at Dartmouth. I don't blame my teachers, who had too many students to give me the individual attention I needed. I blame the fact that schools seem to be getting larger and larger. Kids aren't cars, and teachers aren't robots. We need the time and ability to treat students like the individuals they are.

Not sure where I'm going with this. But here's a picture of me with the Yearbook committee.