This is a funny story.

Anthony Castro and Korian Blake are two of the funniest and most clever students I have. They are the two class clowns in my fourth period (which is partly because they are the only males in a class of 18). Anthony is very smart.

I was giving an informal lecture on . . . something. The point is, I wanted their attention. I wasn't getting it from Anthony. As I'm talking, I walk over to Anthony's desk and put my hand on it. I was hoping to get him on task via the subtle proximity move. Instead, he takes out a blank piece of paper and starts scribbling. Carefully, he folds it in half and turns around to pass the note to Korian. This is literally happening 1 foot in front of me, so of course I grabbed the note.

The note read, "This is a test to see how nosey Mr. Moore is." I laughed pretty hard at that one. "You guys are funny," I said. I saw the look of satisfaction in Anthony's eyes, and couldn't really blame him for it. "Pretty funny," I said, and continued.

I'm quizzing my kids on "Demand" tomorrow. They won't do as well on this quiz as they did on their stock market quiz. I'm going to have them grade their own. Of course they'll all magically get "A"s, but it doesn't matter. The threat of a quiz helps them focus, and they learn from their mistakes when they grade themselves (even if they cheat). Plus, it sucks trying to teach a class when half of them just failed a quiz. They seek revenge.

I like my grade system. I'm very transparent. My kids check their grades as soon as they come in every day. I rounded their GPAs to three places. Now, they know where they stand better. Trinicia Jackson in fourth period has the highest grade with a 3.75 A.

Barry Washington (AKA "Why I teach for America") has an A too. He failed last semester! It's awesome watching him excel. I wish him success. He handed me a business card the librarians made for him. He has a painting company. It's when I think about students like Barry that I realize how much the students change me. There's so much talk about how teachers change lives, but our lives get changed too.

I'm not excited about my lesson tomorrow. However, so much of a lesson is in its delivery. So, even if I plan a crappy lesson, I can still try to sell it with a good delivery. That's what I'm going to try to do tomorrow.

I just ended a unit on the stock market. On the last day, my students were in the library using excel and nyse.com to create a report on their portfolios. It was beautiful. I just sat there and they did all the work. Some of them did finish early and watch videos, but that's not a battle I'm willing to fight in. Some students came during lunch to check their stocks today.

I started a project with my eighth period in which they create a report about playing a sport on the moon. I didn't create the project, but I am modifying it. Me and another teacher are working on it together. We showed a very "white" video on the moon to a group of 35 freshmen. It was pretty hilarious. I think some kids learned something. It was fun to teach.

I started the new unit with my fifth period. I kind of bumbled trying to explain demand. Here's the definition I tried to give: When you desire a good or service and can afford to buy it. They didn't do so well using "demand" in a sentence on their exit quizzes. Here's the definition I'm going to use in my other periods: When you buy something. Hmmm, maybe I should give them both definitions. These are the types of stuff I think about now.

Teaching can be stimulating, but you have to have your routine together first. My routine is more together. For example, I try to grade my students' work on the day they do it. That way I have immediate feedback on what they know and don't know. My seventh period is scoring awesome in part because they are behind other classes. My routine improves each day.

My kids learn, but I do somethings that are frowned upon by other teachers. For example, I don't worry about the state standards too much. The stock market is not part of the standards. As long as its useful to them and the students are excited about it, I think its good to teach it. I also yell sometimes. It can be effective if used sparingly.

I don't use the textbook. A lot of people I respect believe students need to be "reading on grade-level." I dodge the text in order to teach, because my students can't absorb the information through the textbook. I think I am going to push them to read more this semester. I can teach them well without the text, but I need to give them skills in addition to knowledge (although I did teach them to use excel and nyse.com).

Well, those are my thoughts. I'm going to try to write more.

John