TEACHING QUOTES

TEACHING QUOTES AND WISDOM I just started this list, but hope to add lots more information.

1. “Every day is the best day I’ve ever had. Every day there is a great class. Every day there is a terrible class. Every day is different. Every day goes by faster than the day before. Every day I want to quit. Every day I want to be a teacher for the rest of my life.” – Anonymous
2. “Children start school as question marks and leave as periods.” – Neil Postman
3. "pencil sharpening almost killed me...literally." rationale for not stealing pencils from the 'pencil hospital' lending system: "If you take away one of the nurses, who will take care of the sick pencils?" reenactment of teacher frustration at pencil problems: "...and I'm like augggh! Get a pencil!"
4. phonics tip: the letter h makes the sound "huh huh huh (huffing and puffing)" because the g is running and trying to catch it.
5. things I might not choose to say if I were a guidance counselor that I heard at a middle school orientation in the Bronx...on hazing for new 6th graders: "...and then it happens again in high school. That's just the way life is." "Guess what? Before it gets better, it's going to get a whole lot worse." on peer pressure: "You'll handle it. Most of our kids can handle it." after a kid asked whether he or she would get beat up by older kids in 6th grade: "I'm not going to disagree with you on that one."
6. from Gary Rubenstein's workshop on his teaching experiences and tips...after he screams "When you scream like that, you get ten minutes of silence." "Watch out -- the kid who offers to help you pass out papers could be the first kid to stab you in the back." on phrasing class rules negatively: "It's 'Thou shalt not kill,' not 'Thou shalt not prevent others from living.' If it's good enough for God, it's good enough for you, too." "If a kid comes in and says, 'Man, why'd you call my parents?' that's free advertising." on the nerd-like persona he chose and was successful with for his second year: "my normal expression was generally squinty...(students) liked me because they thought I was a weirdo. I knw that one thing I'm good at is being shy and sort of creepy around strangers. I used that to my advantage."
7. parent at Teach for America parent meeting in the fall: "Well, I'm coming, bat in hand. You didn't call me so now I'm here in your face..."
8. "You don't have detention, you're just exit delayed." -- one of the teacher comebacks of the day from this one teacher's page-a-day calendar
9. a veteran teacher I work with, to me at some point this afternoon when she was laughing about so many children not being able to follow her simple directions: (as a teacher) You've got to have a sense of humor or you'll kill a kid."
10. fellow first year teacher, on how it is for him to teach his class: "It's like getting beat up every day."
11. "A child's success in first grade reading looks like the single best predictor and in fact an awesomely powerful predictor -- of his or her ultimate educational outcome, however you measure it." -- Marilyn Jager Adams

....ˇmore to come!

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