They say if you can make a big difference in the lives of three or four students in each class, you can consider that you have done your job. "I'll try to make a difference in the lives of every student in every class. What's wrong with trying to go for it all? The Phillies tried to go for it all and win a World Series, but they got stopped just short of their goal. Still, how many other teams didn't even get that far? In the National League there are 16 teams, so the Phillies beat out 15 teams to get to the world series. If I can change the lives of even 2 or 3 students in each of my 4 or 5 classes each year, that will be maybe 15 kids who are headed in a better direction than they were."

Gangs are all over the place in Philadelphia. Many of the students in public schools in Philadelphia are either in gangs or they are wannabe's -- but from what I know just because a kid is in a gang doesn't mean he's a criminal or a drug dealer. Some gangs are just taking care of their own territory, and yes they will fight and sometimes use weapons but that doesn't mean we should dump the kids into the trash heap or throw them all in prison. So I wrote: "In my classroom I will insist on structure, but I'll be fair and I will try to make my classes very interesting for sure. When I was in high school I remember classes that were so boring taught by teachers who should have retired but they were hanging on to get a better pension or for some other reason."

"That won't happen in my teaching career. No way. My objective is to not be a tough guy or a hard-nosed disciplinarian,...

When they walk into my room I want them to check the bulletin board for new extra credit assignments that might be posted there. I want them to be so self-sufficient that they can see the extra credit assignment and figure it out themselves without having to come up and ask me how to do it."
"Solving problems is part of what school should be about. Not just learning history's lessons and science and math and English, but learning to solve problems. Learning to think for themselves and be resourceful. I think one of the things I will teach is how to study for a test. Kids know they have a test coming up but do they know how to study for it? Is it memorization they are doing? Is it just highlighting the handouts and reading them out loud? What works best for today's students? I will pursue that issue and when I find out which studying strategy works best I'll help the students perfect it."

That way I'll be solving my own problem -- helping students solve their own problems helps me resolve one of my problems, which is, how do I help them get the most out of their time in school? They have so many distractions, like cell phones, text-messaging, video games, parties, cars, dating, movies, the Internet -- the list is long. So if I can get them to look forward to coming into my class that will help solve one of my problems -- helping them learn to solve theirs. I'll be teaching in the wintertime, but if I am successful at motivating students it won't be as cold as it is this year.