Being a new teacher is pretty much like being a student all over again, writes C. W. Arp, the newest contributor to the GothamSchools community section. Arp, who teaches second grade at an elementary school in Brooklyn, will focus his contributions on his journey from fresh-faced Teaching Fellow toward being an experienced teacher.
Despite its problems, my school is a miracle of activity and effort. We have wonderful teachers in our school, and I have been watching them closely for two years. My hope is that by posting a series of dispatches from the front lines of a job that resists abstraction or categorization, I can offer some of the lessons I have learned from these teachers. … In this sense I hope that I can be helpful to other teachers who, like me, are secretly teachers-in-training.
Arp will launch into his dispatches next week. And if you have a perspective you’d like to share, let us know.