Taylor the Teacher

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Kaelie,
I had a mentor once. They’re overrated. That’s why you need three or four of them. I’m proud to be one of yours. Didn’t know I was teaching all those things you attributed to me, but I’ve learned so […]

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In the bathroom chatter ~lounges were removed long ago. hurray for harry wong~ one phrase keeps coming up, “I don’t understand why the district doesn’t step in and do something.”
As though somebody told us the district was on our side and WE BELIEVED THEM.

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drawing by Ken Rodoff
I was going to write a post about two near-fights I intervened in during one 25 minute lunch and how a student ~one i knew would never do this~ refused to come with me and popped off to me while the whole of B lunch stood watching like it’s John Woo.
And how I stood […]

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Stephen King ~et. al.~ is valid reading for high school. Better that students read and enjoy King than pretend to read Dickens and hate ~fear?~ it.
Those who read King, Rowling, Koontz, Sparks, Grishom, Zane, and whatever else they damn well feel like reading will cultivate a love for reading and may someday decide to read […]

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Here’s a great thing about my job:
I get to talk about Pink Floyd ~and other cool stuff~ with people who are still enthusiastic about it. Every year at least one student asks me if I’ve seen Dark Side of the Rainbow, or heard “See Emily Play.”
I LOVE THAT about young adults. They’re excited about things.

~it’s […]

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Ken tells of a student who drew vaginas on his standardized test booklet:

 …one of the students used his test book to draw an extremely large image of female genitalia.
Then, he was all work, all business; like he needed to draw a really big vagina before he could settle down to the task of testing.

I’m […]

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When I was writing To a Little Boy, my original title ~handwritten in my spiral notebook~ was To a Little Black Boy. I debated whether or not to mention his race in that post. Does it matter that the boy is black? He was a sad, tiny boy. He was a sad, tiny, black boy. […]

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Elton is my old pal. ~who’d have thought i could overlook the name “elton”~ I used to make my mom set a place at the table for him when I was very young. ~mommieee, where’s elton john gonna sit? we weren’t on a first-name basis back then~ That’s because, as my most favored imaginary […]

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… I caught a fleeting glimpse
Out of the corner of my eye.
I turned to look, but it was gone.
       Pink Floyd, Comfortably Numb

My classroom walls are white now. Like an insane asylum.
Here’s what it used to look like:

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I cried in my classroom today. This wasn’t like the angry, stressed-out, frustrated cries I’ve had so many times before in that room. This was more like the breakdown you finally reach over a casket or grave site.
I stood over the blue action packer I’ve had on top of my cabinet since day one as […]

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