Fifteen to Forty: Advice from My 1995 Freshmen

As I got ready to retire from teaching, I cleaned out my office. In the far recesses of my filing cabinet were a set of letters that some of my earliest Freshman English students wrote. These were designed as advice to the incoming students and a way to reflect on their growth. I don’t remember if these letters ever reached their intended vict- recipients. When I found them, I couldn’t bring myself to throw them away (or edit them, so they are as the students wrote them then).

As students and teachers begin another school year, here are some sage words from my students, who were fifteen when they wrote them and are about to turn forty this year:

High school is not as hard has it is said to be. It is a blast.  – E.P.

Don’t let the teachers scare you, their really not that bad. – T J.

This class is not an easy class. But don’t worry, we survived and so will you. – M. J.

Don’t go in and think no one is going to like you or this high school thing is way too hard. Be calm and go with the flow. Have a great year and don’t be real nervous or exited. The excitement dies down quickly. This is school, you know!  - D.B.

Remember to be yourself, and don’t try to fit in with a crowd if you really don’t like them.  – M. H.

Instead of reading at a good pace, I crammed it all in at the last minute. This was a very stupid thing to do. –J. H.

Freshman year may or may not be one of the best years of your life. There are many rumors about things that go on in Deerfield High School and most of them are not true.   –K. F.

Regardless of the stories you might have heard, English is not bad at all.  – J.W.

You can have alot of fun this year. Mr. Hirsch doesn’t mind if you deviate a little from the exact assignment, as long as you still shows him what he wants to see. See how far you can push him, trust me it’s a long way.  –R.M.

Bring a frosh (freshman) is really cool. No upperclassmen don’t pick on frosh…unless you provoke them of course. Actually, they think you’re really cute. Most of them want to get to know you. – B.F.

The pressures at Deerfield High School are inflicted on yourself, by yourself. I’ve loved freshmen year and I wouldn’t change it for the world. Well except for maybe a couple more vacations. Let me tell you about Freshman English. At first you’ll walk into class and wonder who the weird looking fellow is. That’s Mr. Hirsch. He’s a much better teacher than you might think he is now.  – R. G.

Our research project wasn’t a joke. I flunked practically. The reason I didn’t start it or take it seriously when Mr. Hirsch told us to. Whoops!- D. P.

One of the best decisions that you can make is to grasp onto the hand that reaches out to you, and never let it go.  – M.F.

BSing will only take you so far, hard work is the key. Freshman English with Mr. Hirsch is fairly easy, you just have to give it your best shot and tolerate the teacher’s humor.
– J. R.

Buckle your seatbelts and hold on because you are going on a very turbulent ride – but like most rides you will look back on it and say you enjoyed it.  –J. D.

Remember though, if you screw up your freshman year, don’t worry too much. You still have three more years to do better. – S.M.

If you think taking notes is absolutely something you will not do (maybe it is against your religion), at least be attentive in class when Mr. Hirsch is talking; he often gives pop quizzes, but also very obvious clues about his intentions in class (clues such as “…be sure that you understand blah blah blah VERY well). - C.C.

There is nothing for you to worry about next year. Unless you goof around and don’t pay attention in class.  – K.K.

This year, my first year at Deerfield High School was a weird one. Mostly because I had Mr. Hirsch as an English teacher. Although he is strange, he pushed me to my full potential. He tried to get me to try harder. I wouldn’t let him. – R.M.

And don’t get shaken up about finals because it is way over hyped – R. H.

Trust me, you don’t want your papers to be in total chaos, this would just kill you when tests and finals come up.  – J. H.

I’ll first give you some background on your teacher. He loves Star Trek, he has a daughter, he is married to Mrs. Hirsch who also works at DHS, he says catfish which really means capiche or understand, his jokes are funny at the beginning of the year but tend to get old, he grades really weird, and when he says hint, hint, nudge, nudge, wink wink, that means pay attention because it’s something important he’s talking about. – J. B.

Mr. Hirsch’s class is a difficult and challenging class that needs to be taken seriously. Although in class he makes corny and sometimes weird jokes, he really means business.  – N. H.


And some advice about reading A Tale of Two Cities:


Although the evil English teachers (and yes, they are power-hungry dictators) may seem like they want you to suffer, this book does have a lot of pleasure in it, that once you get past confusion, you will find. –J.W.

Tale of Two Cities gets good. I know it starts pretty badly. You just have to keep reading.  – W.N.

When I first started, I was not a fan of Dickens and I wished for a simple picture book.  – A. C.

If thou art not understanding the workings of Shakespeare, takest thine book and thine snack and go to the river.  Forgetest thou not thine blanket, for if that holy blanket is left then thou must layest they self upon the ground. The trickling of the river will guide thine self.  -  M.S.

A lot of the writing in A Tale of Two Cities may seem unimportant, and it often seems like Dickens is babbling. He is, but everything he babbles about is pertinent to the story. – A. O.

Dear my fellow traveler,
Yes. You are a traveler because you are probably traveling into a region that you have never been before thus, you do not know what to do once you get there. Remember you just go though the hardships of the travel in order to say that you ended up at the destination. – J.D.

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Reading For Treasure: Part 1: Back To School Edition

Reading for Treasure is my list of articles that are worth your attention. Click here for an introduction!

Going back to school is complicated. For this first “reading for treasure,” I am focusing on four articles about school issues. Three of these articles are more teacher-focused, although one might also help students serving in classroom leadership positions. I am still figuring out this recommending reading idea. Let me know if these were at all interesting or valuable.

Computer Set Up Essentials: Although this article focuses on Macintosh computers and college students, it is a good checklist for everyone. All of the steps that this author recommends should be standard procedure for all of us, regardless of what kind of computer we use. I really want to stress the last step: everyone should be using some sort of password manager. Here is a good article on password managers!

Opening Games and Ice Breakers: Are you a teacher, R.A, club officer or anyone who runs groups? This time of year, we are all looking for good ways to introduce our students/members/residents to each other and create a good environment. The website Free Technology for Teachers is outstanding for many things, but this article provides two wonderful resources to get your folks learning about each other and starting the bonding process.

Letters of Recommendation: These used to be a dirty word (okay, phrase) in our house. Many people are writing or requesting letters of recommendation at this time of year. The director of admissions at Tulane University has a blog post making some very good suggestions on writing a good rec. A few years ago, a colleague suggested I follow his blog and, although I have no connections to this college, it is a worthy read.

Grading and Equity: I have written at length about how the way teachers grade affects student learning. These two articles do an outstanding job of presenting the issues and focusing on how they affect students, especially students who struggle. To be clear: here is the first article and here is the second one.

I am currently reading the novel Soldier of the Mist by Gene Wolfe

Reading For Treasure: An Introduction

I read a lot. I read novels, articles, short stories and much more. Now that I am retired, I am reading even more.

For many years, I have been almost addicted to my RSS feed and my digital reading storage app, Instapaper. My RSS feed is a collection of website articles delivered via a system called Real Simple Subscription through an app that collects these feeds into a kind of personalized newspaper. I use the app Feedly. I don’t read every article on every website that I follow. Some articles I read right away. Some, I save for later using an app called Instapaper that stores them.

Often, I see an article I want to share with someone. Perhaps it would be helpful to one of my children, my parents, or someone with whom I used to teach. I had a folder of articles I would share with my students. Occasionally, I post an article on Facebook because I think it merits the attention of my friends.

Now that I am retired, I keep noting articles to share with my former colleagues. However, I can’t keep emailing them. I don’t want to be a nuisance. I used to get annoyed when friends would “spam” me by sending various internet clippings via email. I don’t want to be that guy.

Yet, like this blog, I want to share these wonderful written treasures. They may not be treasures for everyone, yet, they may be helpful, amusing, or stimulating to a reader somewhere. They may be valuable to someone out there.

So, my blog readers, I am going to return to my English teacher habits and articles you might care to read. Once in a while (perhaps once a month, but that is a goal to which I will not yet commit), I will create a curated list of articles with brief descriptions. This can be a miniature version of an RSS feed.

Looking for a quick read? Look here! No time to find a good piece to read? See what I am recommending. Free moment in the waiting room? Need a good conversation starter? Need a good piece for your students?

Read on!

Back To School: May This Be The Best Year Ever

The school building in the fall, before the children arrive, has a distinct aroma. It has greeted me for more than thirty years. Perhaps it is because my sense of smell is so strong (my nose isn’t so large for purely aesthetic reasons), that it is my first, and one of my strongest, memories of the start of the school year. The building itself has put on its first-day-of-school best waiting to make a good first impression. The classrooms shine with wax and new decorations. The staff’s arms are open wide to receive all students in a place that feels like a second home.

Each year, by the time the middle of August, I found myself yearning to return to school. I started making little trips into the building. I copied schedules for my freshman theatre class. I set up my classrooms. I got my desk ready. Even though I promised myself that I would not, I kept updating my class lists despite the fact they were constantly changing and thus needed more updating. I couldn’t help myself.

After I graduated from high school and since I lived close to my university, I found myself on my college campus over the summer even when I had no need. My former students who are returning to college have told me over and over that they are ready to return. They have had enough summer and want to get back to campus, their friends, and the experiences that make college so wonderful. I know the feeling. 

The gravity of school is powerful and it pulls us back. It is the center of our orbits, even when we are no longer students – or teachers. The start of the school year is, for many, the real “new year.” It is the real transformation and the real change of season. It is exciting and rejuvenating.

As my colleagues prepare to return to their classrooms and my younger students, all former now, prepare to go back to their studies, I have mixed feelings. I will miss them. I will miss the morning rush and the new faces. I will miss the first week updates on the building and the new initiatives. I will miss greeting those wonderful faces coming through the classroom door, the hundreds of new names to learn, and the joy of reunions. I will miss the excitement of opening up the present of a new lesson, of being able to look at kids and honestly tell them that I have something special to explore with them!

My thoughts are with those of you who are going back to school- elementary, middle, high school, college, daycare, preschool, adult education, vocational, or anything else! I share in your anticipation of the year ahead. I remember the special joy of starting all over.

The new school year is a noble endeavor. It is an affirmation of all that is right and good in the world and in this country, even in times of turmoil. We can start again. We can work to help people become their best and most enlightened selves. We can share our passion for the improvement and growth of others. We can look into fresh faces and help them make their way ahead, learn that life is good, that people are here to support them, and that the future is theirs.

May the 2019-2020 school year bring you joy and connection. May your students, teachers, colleagues, and friends help you learn and grow and discover the best in yourself and the best in them. May the new school year reaffirm your noblest goals and passions, and may it transform you and therefore transform the world.

Even Old Teachers Can Learn New Tricks

During this past school year, I would forget I was retiring and make notes to myself about how I could improve my teaching in the future. I would then catch myself and laugh.

Yet, I have improved each year I have been teaching. Sometimes, I am embarrassed when I meet former students and I remember who I was and how I taught ten, twenty, or thirty years ago.

I wish I could go back and teach myself to be the teacher I was at the end of my career. I wince when I think of some of the things I did way back at the beginning of my career, things some of my colleagues still do, and some things that no one does anymore.

Whether it is a better way to approach quotation integration, the power of reading aloud, allowing students more freedom and choice, or learning how to really like the difficult and challenging children, I wish the less experienced Mr. Hirsch could have had the tools that took me so long to master.

You can teach this old dog new tricks. I love teaching with technology. As I was finishing a class in May, and my colleague’s students were coming in, a student commented on my agenda document projected on the screen. This young man had been my student three years prior for Freshman English. He said to me that the “Today Sheet,” (which is what I called my document that lists the targets, activities, and homework for each day) was one of the things he wished that all of his teachers would use.

I thought to myself, why didn’t I use it earlier? What took me so long? Did I need a computer to do that? I often told the students the list of things we were doing for the day. I even had laminated signs for all the targets, and I would hang the ones we were using in the front of the room. What took me so long to make put it all together?

Experience, mentoring, reflecting, and collaborating. The more time I spent with other teachers, the better my teaching became. The more I really listened to what others were doing, the more I could critically reflect on my own practice. It took a few years to learn this- and then to keep learning it. But when I was in survival mode, being reflective would fall away.

That is my main lesson for new teachers and those who help them: get them out of survival mode. Move them past “what do I do?” and get them to “how do I do this well?”

Ironically, the past two years have been times of great growth for me. The main reason is I took on a new class. Last year, another teacher and I sat down and worked on the class together and then met once a week all year while teaching it. This past year, there were three of us teaching the class and we met and collaborated. These collaborations have made my last two years of teaching the best teaching I have ever done!

Putting together a brand new curriculum, teaching books I had never introduced to students, and sharing all of it with a team of colleagues was refreshing and forced me to be highly reflective. Over and over, I asked myself, my students, and my teammates how things went. What should we change and what should we keep?

I will always be a teacher. I am still going to teach once a week on Sundays. I will still think like a teacher and try to  “stay current.” I am not sure if I will go back into the classroom on a daily basis, but if I did, I know what to do to keep improving my teaching.