Today I attended a workshop on combating Islamophobia in schools. It's just one of the numerous workshops offered in connection with being a Brooklyn Collaborative teacher. Not only was it deeply personal and educational but it also had specific follow-up tasks that we could use if we wanted to continue this struggle in our own classrooms. It was a quick hour session on how to incorporate Islam and its history into our subject areas (and they even mentioned the origin of the variable X). I walked away with some tools and readings to help me in my job.

We get access to a lot of workshops like these and I hope other teachers take advantage to make a more inclusive space and learn something that can apply outside of their teaching careers as well.

Today was one of those long days at work. It is normal for me to complete lesson plans and grading at home until later in the evening but tonight was different. There are a few times during the school year that teachers are mandated to stay late at school and tonight was one of them: Curriculum Night. I'm not certain how it works in other schools but at Brooklyn Collaborative we like to have an introduction by administration followed by scheduled programs for parents and guardians to attend. 

One of those scheduled programs is visiting teachers of various subject areas. We try to organize it well but it usually breaks down to parents/guardians meeting teachers of their students and talking about them individually for a few minutes. I feel bad for the ones who are late into the room because I sometimes spend less time with them due to timing. I also wish there were more of them coming through to learn about what we do at BCS. 

That being said, it is a long night of talking and discussing and planning. I had some fruitful conversations tonight with parents of students who are really doing poorly and hopefully will improve with a little push from home and at school. 

​Overall, it is a fun experience but I just don't like coming home that late!

One of the limitations people don't often realize about teachers is that we are often hungry. We are beholden to whatever class schedule we are assigned and need to make due with a free period here or a lunch period there. Usually, that means we are eating small bites throughout the day with maybe one larger one in the middle. My coworker offered me some of her small bites today in a meeting after school where I was relatively hungry so I tried some: it was delicious! I am now inspired to put together my own mixture to feed my hunger during the day.

So, while I still love what I do, I think it's still sort of funny that teachers are forced to eat like birds when we help transition the next generation of great Americans.

Mandated by the UFT contract, every Monday staff across NYC go to various types of professional development to maintain their craft, learn new techniques, and gain knowledge of possible curricula, pedagogical tools, and more. At least, that's what's supposed to happen. In many schools that time is somewhat wasted by complaining teachers and people being brought in to talk about nonsense. 

At Brooklyn Collaborative we use our own staff to educate each other about important issues within and without our school. Today we spent time learning about the various committees and programs we have to support our students through whatever difficulties they are having. It could be physical, social-emotional, or otherwise. The list below was what we explored today for our 70 minutes after school and it was great.

Since we share our building with the Brooklyn New School our librarians cater to all ages grades K-12 and they do an amazing job. Our library is packed with amazing books, magazines, and computers for use. They bring in authors and experts to talk to our students about everything and educate them on how to research and learn about the world. This week is their Book Fair Week so they have great items out for sale and I know they will do well for themselves and our school.

One of the important skills teachers have is the ability to do work anywhere, including on the subway. As I was traveling to visit my mom and sister for dinner I was reading up on some classroom management techniques in a book written by a non-profit called EL Education. They support the work that my school does on restorative practices, using nature and the city as a classroom, and just general progressive education methods. I've read a lot of the book before but it is always good to refresh ones own knowledge, which is exactly what I was doing while riding the 4 train to Grand Central Terminal.

To all teachers out there who are reading, grading, or lesson planning on public transit, I salute you.

We have a firm commitment at my school to use something called Restorative Practices in order to make our students feel more at home and engaged in our school life. We strongly believe that making them feel more of a sense of ownership will translate to them performing better in class, gaining more poise in the outside world, and becoming leaders in their own communities down the line. 

Today was the first meeting our or Committee for Culture and Character, a group I have been on since I started working at Brooklyn Collaborative four years ago. We started with some snacks and a brief initiative (educational game) and then got into the nitty-gritty of talking about how our grade teams were doing and reading about culture and character for the future of our school. It was a great first meeting and I can't wait to dig in!

I am having a great time teaching the geometry course that we have at Brooklyn Collaborative. The last time I taught Geometry was in 2011 at the High School of the Future in Philadelphia and it was very different. The textbooks were uninteresting and we relied on too much of a method of proofs that is boring and difficult to use.

At our school we use the College Prep Math version of Geometry that involves hinged mirrors and protractors to learn about different shapes and how they relate to each other. Today was the first day of using them and I was surprised how high level the conversations got. I even had three conversations about the idea that circles have an infinite number of sides and no sides at all. It was great. And, as you can see, there was a lot​ of collaboration. It was a good class.

Last year I had the opportunity to apply for tenure, a status that is very different from what academics know under the same name. Those in the university world might think of it as guaranteeing a "job for life" when in fact it is just a verification that I am doing my job well and I will have a few more protections according to my union. That being said, it is a relatively grueling task of putting together documentation to prove what I have done over the past four years is of high quality. I think it will go through fine, it will just require a lot of work.

Last year the mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio, responded to criticism from gender rights advocates by finally requiring public schools (amongst other places) to have gender-neutral bathrooms. As you may know this battle has been fought all across the country (with North Carolina taking a lot of the media attention for most ridiculous). The outcome for our school was overall positive with some unfortunate losses for teachers, mainly because this mandate comes with no extra funding.

On on each of the fourth and fifth floor of our building there were three bathrooms: "boys", "girls", and "staff". The staff bathroom was easily locked to allow one or two staff members in.

With this change the "boys" bathroom on our fourth floor has become officially the "staff gender-neutral" and the former "staff" bathroom is now "gender-neutral for students." What this means in practice is that there are fewer toilets for students identifying as male and a bit less privacy for staff.

Once we do get funding, however, the plan is to reconstruct the bathrooms so they all become gender neutral with stalls with walls that go all the way to the ceiling and are more sound proof. Until that day comes, this is where we are.