On the first day of August, I began my 17th year of teaching. I spent the whole previous week preparing my classroom, crammed as much fun as possible into the weekend, and slept badly last night in...
It didn’t take long for them to ask. Just a little bit of downtime and a student approached. “Mr. Wamsted, did you hear about the shooting in Buffalo?” All around the country, teachers went to school...
This has been the longest year of my teaching career. Not literally, of course. Like many of you, I’ve worked about 200 days since last August, just as I do every year. Every educator, however, knows...
During my 15 years of teaching, I have broken up many fights. I have been hit in the ear so hard that it rang me to sleep later that night; I have been smacked in the face and watched my glasses spin...
Once, many years ago, I was arguing with a colleague. I have no idea what we were arguing about. I am sure, however, that I was as much to blame as she, if not more so. We were having a hard time...