Teaching The Grind I spend far too much time trying to avoid, or climb out of, feeling crappy about teaching. I love the job, I really do, but there are so many days (too many?) where I really want to be pursuing my personal interests.  I also want to be helping the students pursue theirs, and learning new things together.  I actually enjoy just about every day that I show up there but there is this persistent feeling that I am not making much of a difference to them or even for myself in my own life.  That the system of teaching that I entered to change is, if anything, bolstered by my work. My personal children go to (and went) the school system that I teach in, so, I cannot retire - yet.  But that’s the thing, isn’t it?  Whatever job we do, and whatever we think about it, it pays the bills.  After many years of teaching, I have a decent salary and good benefits.  Do I give up my home and entire lifestyle?  Do I leave my kids straddled with impe...

The Constitution The Civics Field Academy Constitution: A proposed guiding document for a school without grades, without grade levels, and without walls... a school that should exist. This is a constitution for a charter school concept in which students run the school, design the courses, and self assess. It is modeled after the US Constitution and is designed to empower students to become active citizens and learners by allowing them to be participants in their own education and follow their own passions. But how to do this? My friend Matt Gross and I have designed this Constitution as a framework for how students would manage this seemingly enormous task. As a note, there are no grades (first grade, second grade, etc.) and there is no grading (A, B+, 90%, etc.). Students design and take courses based on interest and skill level. Teachers facilitate this and keep records of knowledge, understandings, and skills on a heat map and/or portfolio that corresponds with local and state sta...

First installment in a fictional series. In this installment, there is an interview with a student named Madison and a teacher named Mr. Hernandez: A teacher and board member at NYC Civics Field Academy circa 2023 - A school without grades, without grade levels, and without walls... a school that should exist. Interviewer: So, the class was putting on a play, tell me about it. Madison: Mr. Hernandez thought up the class in the fall and I helped on the design team. It was supposed to be "12 Angry Men" and we were going to perform it at a theater in the Bronx. I think it was in a college there. In any case, as we were developing the class, Mr. Hernandez noticed that a lot of the terminology of the courtroom was new to us. So, of course, we began planning the course around the idea of going to sit in the real courtroom galleries in the Bronx first. Mr. Hernandez: It was never part of the plan! But that is the amazing thing here, in the planning, it came out. Nobody is plann...