Yo Mista!

I've decided to quit teaching. After six grueling years teaching high school math to New York City's most at-risk students, I've become jaded. Not because of the young people. They were the mos...

http://yomista.blogspot.com/2015/08/why-i-quit-teaching.html

Two years ago, two brothers enrolled at the alternative school where I worked. Colin and Ken, at 16 and 15 years old respectively, had just come back from spending two years in the Dominican Repu...

http://yomista.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-two-brothers.html

Proctoring school-wide exams is by far the most unproductive activity for teachers. For alternative school students who previously haven't been successful in school, we tend to make testing wor...

http://yomista.blogspot.com/2014/03/everyone-in-that-room-wrote-something.html

It's about thirty minutes into the period and I'm circulating around the classroom while my students work on practice problems. To the untrained ear, it sounds like chaos. It's not: it's just at-...

http://yomista.blogspot.com/2014/03/reading-faces-and-words.html

"They're calling this the Bible of effective instruction!" my former principal excitedly announced four years ago in front of his entire teaching staff at the beginning of the school year. He was...

http://yomista.blogspot.com/2014/01/high-fructose-corn-syrup.html

After Tuesday's epic-polar-vortex -snow-storm-pacalyse, NYC schools stayed open on Wednesday only to post the worst attendance numbers (47% ) this school year. Luckily my school's network decided...

http://yomista.blogspot.com/2014/01/what-social-media-tells-me-on-snow-days.html

I tend to arrive to school earlier than most. Usually the only person to greet me at school in the morning is the school safety officer posted at the main entrance. I'll say good morning to him a...

http://yomista.blogspot.com/2014/01/rosss-dilemma.html

I'm back.  It's been nearly a year since I've last written on Yo Mista! A lot has changed personally. Yet nothing has changed professionally. And I guess that's why I've been so uninspired ...

http://yomista.blogspot.com/2014/01/resurrection.html

Carlton is an Algebra student of mine who I have a hard time imagining as an "at-risk teenager." He's bright, incredibly sweet, and has a good heart. If he wasn't enrolled at an alternative high ...

http://yomista.blogspot.com/2013/01/quizzes-cheat-sheets-and-theatrics.html

Nikhil Goyal is quickly becoming a force to be reckoned with in the education world. In the TED Talk below, Goyal calls for an education revolution. His beliefs and thoughts seem to echo with ed...

http://yomista.blogspot.com/2012/12/this-17-year-old-is-on-fire.html

Children react and cope with crisis in different ways. Some act out, others harm others, others harm themselves, the list goes on. From the onset, I coped by dreaming: I yearned to be a superhero...

http://yomista.blogspot.com/2012/12/man-of-steel.html

A friend of mine shared this video with me; she said it reminded her of what I do. Take a look, it's pretty inspiring. Created by Tragedy and Hope , the video is narrated by the late philosop...

http://yomista.blogspot.com/2012/12/what-if-money-was-no-object.html

"One of these days, Karl is probably going to stab me outside of school," I admitted to a co-worker as we left for the day. My co-worker smiled, but looked concerned, as if she couldn't tell if...

http://yomista.blogspot.com/2012/11/two-chinese-buffets.html

In the world of teaching at-risk teenagers, the odds of students achieving what we in 21st century America define as "success" are slim-to-none. For many of my students, college is simply not a r...

http://yomista.blogspot.com/2012/11/this-isnt-right.html

When I left my iPhone in a cab on a Friday night, I wasn't just angry, I was disappointed. It wasn't just about the iPhone. It was also the idea that I could do something so stupid and forget som...

http://yomista.blogspot.com/2012/11/giving-thanks-part-ii.html

A colleague recently sent me this song (via this blog post), and I couldn't stop laughing. Enjoy.

http://yomista.blogspot.com/2012/11/read-book-brush-your-teeth.html

In a recent report published by the Annenberg Institute for School Reform, where a student lives still determines where a student ends up, despite a decade's worth of "education reforms" in NYC. ...

http://yomista.blogspot.com/2012/10/demography-is-still-destiny-in-nyc.html

An old friend of mine recently shared this video with me on Facebook, which I thought was pretty hilarious. An inner city high school substitute teacher takes attendance at his new placement: an ...

http://yomista.blogspot.com/2012/10/substitute-suburbia-for-inner-city.html

I've lived in New York City for six years now and in that time, I've learned two very valuable lessons. The first is that there are people peeing everywhere, so turn corners with caution. This w...

http://yomista.blogspot.com/2012/10/when-paths-cross-again.html

"I know Mista, I did really bad. Imma come during lunch to get help." I do a lot of legwork in the beginning of the year building relationships with my students. It's actually a tactic I learne...

http://yomista.blogspot.com/2012/09/its-not-always-about-math.html

Up until my early twenties, I spent every other summer in Karachi , Pakistan. I've grown to love the city, but it wasn't always like that. I hated going there when I was younger, when my mom had...

http://yomista.blogspot.com/2012/09/lessons-from-squatty-potty.html

It's the kids' first day of school. When the bell rings and they start filling up my classroom, there's a brief, chaotic moment where I have absolutely no control or influence. They don't know me...

http://yomista.blogspot.com/2012/09/winning-respect.html

I'm somewhere in the middle of excited, calm, and nervous. Today is the first day of classes for students at my new alternative high school (we're starting a week earlier than traditional NYC pu...

http://yomista.blogspot.com/2012/08/round-four-fight.html

I recently searched "John Strauss" on Google and was surprised that none of the search results said, "the best teacher I've ever had in high school." In fact, there was barely any information or...

http://yomista.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-real-mccoy.html

An article published in the NYT this week highlights how states across the U.S. are changing the way teachers will receive certification. According to the article, "New York and up to 25 other ...

http://yomista.blogspot.com/2012/07/becoming-mista-or-miss.html