Today marks my last summer vacation—the end of my teaching career. I honestly don’t know if I would go back even though I could. But I’m not sure how worth it the pay and treatment a teacher gets would be later on in life. The decision came down to a common motif I’m seeing inContinue reading “I quit teaching”
Tag Archives: Growing Pains
ALHS c/o 2022
“Who’s your favorite class?” One of my students would constantly ask me. I told him I didn’t have a favorite, but if I did, it wasn’t them. It was the class above them. He still asked me every day, for the next 2 years. Each class he was in lowkey pushed my buttons. It testedContinue reading “ALHS c/o 2022”
It’s not as bad as I thought: Progress as Department Chair
It’s been about four months since this semester started—four months as department head. At the onset, I was pretty nervous. As soon as I got the position in the spring, I was ready to take on responsibility. Though the previous chair did not want to put anything on me since I was not getting paid—IContinue reading “It’s not as bad as I thought: Progress as Department Chair”
Shelter-in-Place Log #4
School has been closed since March 13th, 2020 and Governor Gavin Newsom ordered a Shelter-in-Place on March 17th, 2020. Despite other pandemics in recent decades (H1N1, SARS, Ebola, etc.) there hasn’t been a global pandemic or even state-wide shutdown during those times. And in accordance to SFUSD’s Continuity of Learning Protocol, all assignments at thisContinue reading “Shelter-in-Place Log #4”
Shelter-in-Place Log #3
March 25, 2020: Today the superintendent announced that six Bay Area school districts will extend the closure through May 1st and SFUSD being one of them. Like I mentioned in one of the previous logs— I am surprised and not surprised that they have extended the closure. I’m glad they did keeping in mind public safety, but now whatContinue reading “Shelter-in-Place Log #3”
Shelter-in-Place Log #2
Currently, SFUSD has put out what they define as the “Continuity of Learning” to address what [at least our district is doing, not so sure across the state] students could be doing and what teachers should be doing. Before the city-wide lockdown & shelter-in-place, I already anticipated that closure was upon us, especially with theContinue reading “Shelter-in-Place Log #2”
My Two Loves
Prologue: Aya and I decided to get a dog back in 2018. She seriously started looking for rehoming a puppy that Fall, and I didn’t really think anything of it. It was my first year working full-time so finding a dog wasn’t at the forefront of the laundry list of teacher tasks I was drowningContinue reading “My Two Loves”
Parents just want to be included
A few days before the news of Gigi & Kobe’s death I saw this video of John Boyega on Twitter— surprising his parents with a house of their own. The weeks following of the Bryant accident has made me reflect on the recent deaths of my family and friends. And something he said resonated with me:Continue reading “Parents just want to be included”
Balasbas Says 