The first year teaching is one of the hardest periods in someone’s professional life. If you’re lucky, you have a group of mentors and experienced teachers looking out for you (Thanks, Mr. C, Ms. Brusch, Sonya, Juan, et al). If you’re not as lucky, you get handed books, advice and professional development that never really …
Author Archives: sara anne liebman
The Missing Students
I’ve been thinking a lot about my students. The ones who graduated. The ones who improved without the distractions of physical school. The ones who didn’t. But my mind always goes back to a small, specific group. These kids were doing fine while we were meeting in person. They were attending class, making progress. I …
Where do we go from here?
It’s been hard for me to write the last couple of months. Partly because of time constraints…who knew I would have to be both a working mom and a stay at home mom during a quarantine? Partly because I wasn’t sure I had anything original to say. So many others had covered the difficulties facing …
This is not a vacation
As NY stops just short of a lock-down amid the spread of the Coronavirus, many of us teachers worry for the future. Sure, we’ve been instructed to commenced “remote learning” for the next month, but no one knows what that really looks like until it’s up and running. Many of my students have made contact …
An Ode to Judy Blume
Yesterday was National Women’s Day so I was thinking about the influential women in the world and especially the ones who write YA books. There was one who came to mind as she was a trailblazer in this genre and is having a resurgence of popularity just now. Judy Blume was one of the first …
The Intangibles of Teaching
I went for a massage this morning (self-care is important, people) and as I was checking out, this m an was telling the receptionist about how his teachers influenced his life. About how he was a “bad kid” but they still supported him and how he didn’t really realize it until later how much his …
Literature for a change…
Part of the reason I started writing here was to discuss literature and books, especially for young adults and middle grade readers. However, I’ve gotten away from that, having been inundated with the politics of teaching. I have read a couple of really good YA books recently and while they don’t seem similar on the …
Perspectives on Regents Scoring
Yesterday I, along with many other teachers in New York State, administered the Common Core English Regents. I proctored students who had extended time and require scribes and the test to be read aloud to them. Many have taken the Regents before but were scheduled for it again anyway to see if they would reach …
“Free tutoring” isn’t free
One of my former colleagues (Hi, Mista C) shared this article: Stop Making Teachers Feel Guilty for Asking to Be Paid for Their Work (https://www.weareteachers.com/wont-work-for-free/?utm_content=1576178876&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR1Tk9Kq4yxCciKZ0PUEyxqGDB7Fjublgm0qWANO-TtQnVd7U1LLvzO6nuQ) and I’m kind of worked up about it. I am in my 12th year of teaching. Over this time I: ran clubs stayed late to meet with parents graded papers …
A Perspective on the MOSL
Measures of Student Learning or MOSL as it is called most often, is the part of our teaching evaluations that are based on student test scores. Some school use their own testing for this, but many others use the NYS Regents exam for this. My school does the latter. While on the one hand, it …
Meditations on Literature and Literacy...Continued 