Dan Adiletta is a first-year teacher at Explore College Preparatory Middle School in East Oakland.

So there I am, fighting for control of a classroom against students sloshing knee-deep in disrespect towards each other and towards me, and all the while my observing school coach is clacking dourly on her computer. I know what my lesson and my classroom management is lacking; I need to include greater academic rigor and better routines and instructions to minimize disruptive behavior.

Tomorrow will be better, I say, I’ll work my tail off to make tomorrow better.

I come home late because of a flurry of mandatory meetings and student requests. I was at school an hour and a half early to prep. My lunch break was 20 minutes. I taught five back-to-back classes that were all a grueling struggle. I sit on my couch, my shirt untucked and left eye twitching, with my head in my hands feeling miserably guilty for failing the students whose education is in peril. Read the rest of this entry »

Dan Adiletta, a new teacher at Explore College Preparatory Middle School in East Oakland, writes about his first weeks on the job. -Katy 

It’s 7 a.m. on Sunday morning and I’m trying to take a stand. There is a growing number of sticky notes crowding my desk that I have been ignoring. They make up the list of things that should have been done already.

During the first marking period I was in a constant state of panic. But I’ve limped through the finish line and learned a lot:

All directions need to be painfully explicit and accompanied by rubrics and examples. Students shouldn’t be allowed to hand in work past a week from when it’s due. The faculty kitchen is off limits to students (whoever took my sandwich, I will find you!).

There are hundreds of other key lessons, but the biggest one of all is Read the rest of this entry »