My cousin, a state dairy inspector, can look at a Holstein for one minute and accurately assess the cow’s age, health, and profitability. I have acquired a slightly different skill: I can look at a student for one second and tell if he or she is going to ask me for a letter of recommendation.   I’ve gained the skill through experience. This fall has been filled with requests, mostly from my former AP Language and Composition. They smile nervously, make brief attempts at pleasantries. Then they broach the question,  always with the exact same phrasing: “So…I was wondering…”. They drag … Continue reading Man of Letters

Tuesday was a red-letter day for John Champe’s section of Positive Experiences in Education Relationships (PEER), a class that aims to promote positivity at our school through student mentoring, as well as larger whole-school functions. This month, for example, we’ll be putting on several different events centered around Unity Day, a national day of anti-bullying and pro-inclusion, which we commemorate (thanks to the help of Sources of Strength) with unity chains and a fall tailgate during all lunches with pumpkin painting, cider, and cornhole.   Since taking over as faculty sponsor last fall, I’ve learned a lot about the variables that … Continue reading Dog Days

This is a transcript of a speech I gave at Winchester Toastmasters 9772 a few years ago… In the spring of 2014 I became obsessed with an intellectual challenge: baking the perfect apple pie.  It all started the year prior. I was watching the Apple Blossom parade in Winchester, and I saw in the parade a convertible that, according to the signage, held the winner of that year’s apple pie baking contest. I was amused, and I was also very jealous. I resolved that next year I would win the apple pie baking contest, and I would ride in the … Continue reading Easy as Pie

Every year a few nondescript nouns or adjectives take on new meaning to our nation’s youth. Out of a cocoon of context (rap lyrics, memes, in-jokes), these slang words are hatched into the air, wild-colored with new meaning, elusive to the comprehension of adults, traveling through our hallways and classrooms (sometimes even make an appearance in essays). When one drifts into my reach, I follow the connoisseur’s protocol: capture and categorize.  In writing this, I have avoided the very helpful urbandictionary.com. My goal is to taxonomize these words and phrases based on my students’ specific usage, which may have regional … Continue reading Slang Report Fall 2019

Sometimes I think about the evolution of education. When that happens I invariably think about my aunt Francis, the only teacher I’ve ever known who used corporal punishment. Aunt Francis graduated with a degree in 1935 from the Richmond division of William & Mary, a school that went on to become what is now VCU. She taught in Central Virginia for over thirty years. A childhood survivor of polio, Francis had a badly disfigured left ankle and shortened leg as a result of the disease. Her custom shoes compensated for this unevenness with fat three-inch soles. The shoes were one … Continue reading Without a paddle

Back in the spring I added an exciting addition to my classroom: a word-of-the-day tear-away calendar I purchased for seventy-five percent off from Bed, Bath, and Beyond. I placed it near the tissue box — reading material for the nose-blowers. It quickly became part of my morning routine to tear away to the next entry and read the day’s bit of vocab. For a while I was content.  Then came the later weeks of May. A stretch of several meaningful classes remained, but my activities were slowed by spotty attendance and even spottier student motivation. It wasn’t anything out of … Continue reading On a tear

English teacher Kelly Gallagher stirred the pot last week:  Our nation’s youth refer to this as “shade”. As the day progressed, more and more educators responded to the influential education writer’s online observation. While it didn’t turn into a full-on ratio-ing, the tweet sparked a lively debate in the mentions about how much dressing up for the job really matters…  I don’t think there’s much to debate about the professionalism of the tweet: criticizing a coworker on a public platform is unprofessional and petty, and it’s behavior I can’t remember ever seeing from Gallagher as long as I’ve followed him … Continue reading Fashion Police

This year I’m trying to be more conscious about student names — remembering them, pronouncing them, appreciating the subtleties. And does it ever get subtle: I have one class with three students whose names are similar enough to easily confuse. It doesn’t help that they are sitting close together. Nearby sit two students with names that are also very easy to interchange. My goal is to get them right, not out of any sort of perfectionist tendency, but because I’ve learned that this is one important area to create a fast rapport.   This might seem like an obvious lesson, but … Continue reading Names

The more I teach, the more I observe and reflect, and sometimes this leads to a few shopworn pedagogical theories that aren’t backed by anything other than a hunch.   In fact, most veteran teachers, I’ve found, harbor a few odd ideas that are key to their success. A lot of these theories are classroom management-focused. I once taught with a shop teacher who truly lived by the old maxim of never smile in front of your students until Thanksgiving. Then there was a fellow English teacher whose mantra (which he picked up from his time with the nuns) was “devour … Continue reading My eccentric theory about the first days of school

This year the John Champe English department will be reading and discussing Workshopping the Canon. I’m excited to learn Mary E. Styslinger’s approach to teaching and supplementing classic texts; last year in AP Language & Composition, I taught several canonical American works. Since it was my first time teaching the course, I tried to keep data on students’ satisfaction with different works. What follows is an analysis of that feedback. I was inspired to teach texts from the American canon by my AP Summer Institute instructor, who claimed to teach ten classic American texts during her course each year. Her … Continue reading The books my classes read and (mostly) enjoyed last fall