Jeremy Lenzi's Blog (14)

...or, it's difficult to defend the media, part deux...

Leave it to the creatives to come up with a graphics that put yesterday's events completely in to an easily understood form:

If that's too difficult to read, you can go …

Many of you know that I teach Mass Media and Communications -- Journalism is encompassed within this broad title -- and have done so now for 11 years. As a person who has read the newspaper for as long as I can remember, I must say that, while it can certainly be a challenge at times to teach this subject, it can also be very rewarding. As an aside, when I first interviewed at GS, I was informed that the person who got the position would have to teach the Journalism classes -- it was said to…

I truly LOVE discussing books, movies, songs, life in general with people. I LOVE it even more when I don't agree with somebody on the topic we're discussing -- not necessarily because I love to argue with people, but because the argument tends to challenge my own thinking and forces me to see things from another perspective.

And I had one of those conversations this morning with our school's librarian, Carrie. Now, you should know that we've got the greatest librarian on the face of…

Man, it pained me to even create that headline above. I can't stand ANY of those expressions -- they completely drive me up a wall. Why have we gotten to the point in our society that we are unable to state our opinions freely -- especially when asked? Why do I have to wrap my thoughts up in bubble wrap in order to soften the blow? Why can't I just be blunt and say what I want to say?

So let's tear these apart...

• To be honest with you... Oh, so what you're…

I hate when people say "old teacher," and "senior teacher" is just a little better -- I definitely prefer "seasoned teacher," personally -- but also know that it can all be a matter of semantics to some. I like to look at myself as being reflective -- and also highly critical of the way that I've done things throughout the years. I was recently looking back at a list of my classroom rules from my first year of teaching -- wow is about all I can say!

I definitely went in with a do…

So if you read yesterday's post, you would have noticed that bullying has been on my mind lately. I'd like to thank Shane Koyczan for that -- sincerely. After seeing his work and also after seeing some friends who posted about watching the film Bully with their kids (Thanks, Di and Ryan), I decided that I needed to check out the documentary for myself.…

I've spoken to my students on occasion about what has to be the greatest feeling in the world. Many times I get some pretty shallow answers, while at others they give me a response that just blows my socks off. Admittedly, I've typically gone with a stock answer: to be a musician who has a crowd of thousands in the palm of his hand, all singing the words to the song he's written. I've felt this way since the mid 1980s when Live Aid took place. I hadn't really seen big concerts like this --…

original post: http://dailylifeasateacher.wordpress.com/2013/04/02/what-makes-it-all-worth-it/

It's not that I haven't wanted to express my opinions about the field of education lately -- a ton has happened since I last posted that deserved to be written about -- but, quite honestly, I've been lazy -- or biting my tongue, you take your choice.

One of the best parts of being a…

Original posting: http://dailylifeasateacher.wordpress.com/2013/04/04/just-a-little-about-teach-for-america-tfa/

As a public school teacher, I've always been a little weary of what Teach for America does. Don't get me wrong, on the surface, it's a noble experiment -- take their own words, for instance: "We recruit a…

Original posting: http://dailylifeasateacher.wordpress.com/2013/04/03/when-you-think-the-words-are-written-just-for-you/

I just finished working on Markus Zusak's The Book Thief  with my group in English. It's always a great unit -- very few students haven't loved it -- and I mean that sincerely, I can probably count them on one hand. We were wrapping things up…

Original posting: http://dailylifeasateacher.wordpress.com/2013/04/05/thanks-mr-murphy/

I started my teaching career at Franklin Regional High School in Murrysville, PA. I had three up and down years and learned a ton about what it means to be a teacher -- I learned from strong mentors and made some great friends who are very dedicated to what they do. After three years, however, I had the opportunity…

NO. Absolutely not. No way. Hell to the no. NO.

Okay, that's out there. I feel better after having typed it, I really do. So let's take a deeper look at it.

Grant Wiggins started this call - and I don't really care if he meant this piece to be satirical or not - he's too widely respected (by myself as well) and too many people are running with it, one…

I was once told by an Athletic Director that those who criticize your work are in the vocal minority while those who support you are in the silent majority. I didn't really want to admit that this was true and it

took me some time to come to terms with this, but it really hits this

subject on the head. My current principal and I have had this

conversation recently as well when dealing with what it takes to get

people to follow directions. If you take the time to think…

I'd like to make something clear regarding my recent post on Waiting for Superman -- please don't read my post thinking that I'm necessarily drinking all of the Kool-Aid. I have questions and doubts just like

anybody else. I don't believe that charters and KIPP and Geoffrey Canada

are the end all be all, if you will. I'm a public school teacher who

believes very strongly that we need to fix our system and I believe that

teachers in the public schools are doing a…