There was a time when We, The People trusted our leaders. There was also a time when Our Leaders had earned our trust.

Now it seems like trust is taken for granted and leadership is taken for $.

I have spent the last few days at my school preparing my room to be inundated with 150 kids next Tuesday and I have to say I am excited - and a bit nervous - to meet them. Yet, the fact that some classrooms will be empty of teachers on September 6 is baffling - especially when there are still over 700 recently-laid-off teachers ready, willing, and able to step in.

Moreover, in a situation where one superintendent is ousted only to find out that another is attending a vacation in the two weeks prior to school starting, it seems like our leaders are abandoning ship (I don't care how far in advance the vacation was planned - if I were to be that situation, I would cancel it to make sure I had full teacher rosters on the fist day of school).

Why is it so hard to find and maintain good leaders?

Over the past three years of my interactions with teachers across the School District I have been called many things: idealistic, optimistic, unrealistic, and more. It is hard for me to take part in those conversations because I don't really care how I'm labeled - I am not going to change. 


I demand good leaders. I demand people who recognize good leadership when it comes along. I demand that leaders earn our trust an keep earning our trust after they are in place. If I've learned anything from the past few months of Dr. Ackerman's decline it is that she should have paid more attention to what the nay-sayers were saying and try to understand where they were coming from.

I demand that I become a good leader, regardless if I ever hold the position of one. I demand that others check on me from time to time and remind me of what it is like to be one. I demand of my students to be good leaders as well. And most of all I demand that people would stop using my idealism as an excuse to rationalize their jaded viewpoints. 

If we can't believe in each other, we can't trust each other. If we can't trust each other, we can't share a vision. And if we can't share a vision, our leaders are meaningless. Let us rebuild the trust that once existed in Philadelphia's history: one student at a time.

In an endeavor to raise money to fund my Google Chromebooks idea I am selling a laptop cart I received recently. It is in great condition, have never been used, and is available for easy pickup anytime. I have listed it on Craigslist also. 

The brand is Bretford, a great company that sells many carts to the School District of Philadelphia. The cart can hold up to 20 laptops and has a "Brain" device that rotates electricity to charge all the laptops simultaneously. It is easy to roll and is made of a strong steel cage that is very secure. It is easily lockable with a provided lock.

The beginning of the school year is fast approaching for the School District of Philadelphia so I thought I would put down a few thoughts on the big ideas I have in store. I'll start with the simple things: decorations. If only my future students could see this blog, then maybe they would know what to expect. But I digress...

I've spent a lot of time on lesson plans over the past week - about 2 hours a day (except weekends and the Philadelphia Folk Festival). I've also spent a lot of time in my own classroom, organizing my supplies and decorating my room with things I think are important. I would distill them into three major categories: practical decorations; interesting decoration; and funny decorations. 

Practical decorations: in any math classroom I think it is important to have information that could help kids who get into a jam. After all, in real life we do similar things with the Internet, right? So I have posted information on place value, fraction conversion to decimals, and common square roots. 

Interesting decorations: the famous quote from Martin Niemoller; odd geometric views of the Earth (imagine our planet shaped like an hyperbola); a history of Benjamin Banneker. These are mainly for the oddly intellectual kids who want to read or think about something at the same time as math class.

Funny decorations: I think it's important to not take yourself too seriously so I have t-shirts of various design with funny math-related jokes on them. Additionally, I delved through the numerous demotivational posters to find one that wasn't too mean. 

In a more practical matter, I am still seeking to provide my students with Chromebooks for use during the year. All I need is a grant of $5000. I have not had much luck with local bank branches yet. Someone suggested if I were to post my need online I would get some donations. If $40 provided a kid with a laptop in my classroom for the whole year, would you donate?

When I began my teaching career in the Fall of 2009 I was told by friends and family alike that I was entering a profession with safety, security, and many rewards. Little did I know that within two years a lot of that would crumble and news stories would become widespread blaming teachers for the inadequacies of the US school system. At the same time the press seems gung-ho to laud increases in test scores that to many professional educators and researchers do not really tell much about a student's learning but correlate fairly well to their socio-economic status.

Over the past few months in Philadelphia we have had a tumultuous debate surrounding our Superintendent and her policies towards pedagogy and schooling, ending with her withdrawal from her position yesterday. While she was quite a divisive personality in her position, she still did improve some things about the School District of Philadelphia. That being said, one of the main aspects she is praised for is an increase in test scores - again, focusing on something too quantifiable and not very reliable.

I am about to begin my third year teaching at my third school and I believe I am getting better at what I do despite the uncertainty of this profession and how changes in the upper echelons of administration can affect my students and me. I have more confidence in my ability to connect with students earlier in the year; I find planning my lessons to flow more smoothly in my mind; I know where to find resources I need to help my students learn; and I now have a large network of people who can support me in times of need. 

Well, everyone, I have returned home. After a wonderfully long first-class plane ride back to Philadelphia (thank you frequent flier miles) I spent a day recuperating, unpacking, and seeing family. Today is the first day I have planned to really get back to work prepping for this school year. But before I do, I need to recap you on my last few days in Israel and share some thoughts of what I need to focus on hard-core this year, both educational and personal. If you just want to look at some pictures, click here.

My last few days I spent between very good friends in Netanya and very good friends in Tel Aviv. It is quite amazing how your experience in a city changes depending on if you know people. It was a welcome relief to be staying with friends I've had for years and swapping stories of travels, work, and more. I had a chance to "talk shop" as it were with a few formal and informal educator friends of mine in Israel and we were fascinated by major differences in educational systems. To satiate your curiosity, I focus mainly on the fact that in Israeli high schools the teachers move around classrooms instead of the students. Moreover, there are designated homeroom teachers who spend up to 300 minutes a week with their classroom of students. They stand a much better chance of creating classroom culture that way.

In Tel Aviv I got a chance to take part in the most amazing rally of my entire life. As I mentioned briefly I spent time attending and supporting this enormous rally last Saturday night. Over 280,000 individuals came out to support the idea of more social welfare in the country. People from all walks of life, young and old, hippie and conservative, left and right, came together to rally for a major change in the policies of their country. An equivalent rally in the US would require something like 6 million people to attend. It was amazing. It made me really wish that we taught our youth better about how to connect with civic responsibility. Unfortunately, it's hard to test that...

My last splurge of this trip was using my frequent flier miles (as I mentioned above) to take a first-class seat on my flight home. If you ever get a chance to try out US Airways' "Envoy Suite," I highly recommend it. I arrived in Philly well-rested and rejuvenated. I was able to even stay up until 9:45pm last night! 

As for things I want to focus on this year: 

1) Really making math relevant to my students while also showing them how cool it can be to describe the world
2) Cooking more food in my apartment and having people over for dinner more often
3) Expanding my Personal Learning Network and sharing ideas across the globe
4) Not wasting anymore time

Three years ago when I was gallavanting across the world I decided to take a brief respite and spend 3 days at a beach on Thailand. It was much easier than thinking about things to do or deciding which museum to visit. Basically, I just needed a vacation.

After traveling across Eastern Europe for 4 weeks and spending the first two days of my travels in Israel going between Tel Aviv and Netanya, I'm taking things easy. Not TOO easy, mind you, just easy enough to get to the beach a few times in the warm Mediterranean water. I spent a morning and afternoon with Jonathan Korman at the Tel Aviv beach then following a group of Maccabi kids being led by Lisa Rothstein. Shoutout to good friends! The next day I booked a hotel room for myself and spent the afternoon basking in the sun. 

The one really interesting (and less vacation-y) thing I've done is to visit Kibbutz Lochmei HaGeta'ot (the Ghetto Fighers Museum) with some Habonim Dror kids. It was really interesting to go back there after having visited many of the countries and cities described. The Ninth Fort in Kaunas had a diorama on display and I contrasted it with the pictures that I took when I visited 3.5 weeks ago. Very interesting to see something in a museum and in real life.

For Shabbat I returned to Netanya to spend time with Kvutzah Aseef, my friends living communally here. We had some very nice (and very alternative) Shabbat services and then sat down to a wonderful meal of curry eggplant and potatoes with sides of chummus and challah (and salad of course). To top it all off, we had watermelon for dessert. Just great. 

Now if you will excuse me I must go spend some MORE time at the beach then go down to Tel Aviv for a rally of epic proportions. If you are curious to learn about it, click here.

I've now been in Israel for 3 days and have to say I really do love this country. Of course it's nice to finally be able to read and speak the local language of one of the places I am visiting, but it is also comforting to be with friends and family who happen to be as nerdy as I am.

But let's backtrack. I took a VERY early morning flight from Vienna to Munich and transferred to the flight to Tel Aviv fairly easily. The flight from Munich->Tel Aviv was REALLY nice. Lufthansa does a very good job for their customers. Free coffee/tea/hot chocolate around the terminals and an amazing video entertainment system on the plane that is TURNED ON the moment you get on board. Love it.

Once in Israel I visited my friends from Habonim Dror, my Jewish youth movement, and had a great time with them in Netanya. They have a very cute house with tons of people coming through all the time. For dinner on Sunday and Monday there were NINE people. Great conversation ensued. In fact, after dinner on Monday we had a guest speaker, Itamar Landau (another friend from Habonim) lead us in a little learning session on the restrictions of Shabbat and where they are derived from in the Torah and Talmud. Very interesting stuff.

Yesterday I woke up early and spent the day traveling to my family in Kfar Saba, where I then embarked on my grant-writing marathon. As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, I am trying to get Google Chromebooks into my classroom this year. In order to do so, I need funding. I am working on this grant application for general purposes and would appreciate any input on how and where to look for money. I just need $5000 to get this ball rolling and then my students will have complete Internet access in my classroom.

Today I had a great time at the beach with another friend from Philly who happens to be here for a wedding (shoutout to Jonathan Korman). We spent a couple hours along the water and then followed around Lisa Rothstein (another Philly native) who is leading a JCC Maccabi ArtsFest group. Overall a fun and full day.

I look forward to a bit more relaxation over the next few days as I return on August 10th. I imagine I'll make one or two more entries here and then return to my more educational/pedagogical focus after.