Tracy Kidder’s Among Schoolchildren is the story of Mrs. Zajac’s 5th grade classroom; it’s also a masterful work of literary journalism about what it means to engage meaningfully in everyday work. I dare say it’s the best book about teaching I’ve read.

On the tops of pages 138 and 139, I wrote in all capitals, “I WANT TO BE IN MRS. ZAJAC’S CLASS.” This is because Mrs. Zajac is serious. And funny. And mean and nice and fair. She is quintessentially a teacher, yet her students (and Kidder’s readers) sympathize with her as a human being. Mrs. Zajac makes me want to teach better, and the way Kidder describes her teaching makes me want to write better.

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That’s me and my students six or seven years ago, a few of whom wanted to catch snowflakes. This post is retrospective in part, so I thought the pic would be appropriate.

Today on Magical Teaching, I bring you the Top Ten Magical Teaching posts of 2012 as well as some two-sentence teaching resolutions from a few of our contributors and fans: one step back and one step forward, something old mixed with something new.

A Step Back: Top 10 Posts from 2012

In 2012, Magical Teaching garnered over 21,000 views, attracting visitors from 103 countries. There were 93 posts overall, and the busiest day of the year was Oct. 24, with 3,371 views. Here are the top 10 posts of the year, in case you missed them the first time around.

10. “Do Teachers Actually Save Lives?” – text by Steven VanderStaay
9. “Granola Bars and the Path to Student Services” – text by Sheryl Cornett
8. “Desks Covered With Graphite and Ink” – text by James Boutin
7. “A Rare Moment of Pause” – text by Kolby Kerr
6. “Diatribes From a Point Junkie” – text by Ajane Burnley
5. “How I Regulate Even When I’m Gone” – text by Miss Darkside
4. “Show Me Your Class Rosters” – video by Derek Smith
3. “Letter to a New Teacher” – text by Derek Smith
2. “Somewhere in the Middle” - text by Lindsey Jones
1. “What Time Is It?” - photo by Derek Smith

A Step Forward: Two-sentence Teaching Resolutions

STEVE VANDERSTAAY: My evening self resolves to be kind to my morning self. I’ll trim the e-mail inbox to 10 messages.

CHRISTIAN CERONE: Get manila folders. Organize my file cabinets.

JENNIFER MERCEDE: Two thousand thirteen is my sugar wean. Plus, I’ll write a song a week.

JO ANNA GAONA ALBIAR: I vow to remember my role as teacher/server and forego my natural tendency toward sarcasm and self. And to exercise more so I can carry stacks of research papers from building to building, up and down many stairs, without having to show up breathing hard and sweating all over the place.

DAVID JACOBSEN: Amuse myself less. Agitate my students more.

AJANE BURNLEY: Get an internship. Try harder (at most things).

PAUL WILLIS: Climb high. Grade low.

DEREK SMITH: Zoom in. Look closely.

EVIN SHINN: Work less. Balance more.

JACK KENNEDY: Writing is thinking made visible. Must intentionally do more to promote good thinking.

BETSY KALMAN: Delegate the teaching of grammar lessons to my students. Read aloud more in class.

MELANIE SIEVERS: Retire as soon as possible. Remain calm until then.

LISA GRUDMAN FOLKMAN: Make a difference to each child, whether it be big or small. Send them off to a new year with confidence.

THE MODERN TEACHER: Do more with less. Be happy about it.

What’s your two-sentence teaching resolution? Share in the comments below.

(Derek Smith)

Winner of the National Book Award in 1967, Jonathan Kozol’s Death at an Early Age: The Destruction of the Hearts and Minds of Negro Children in the Boston Public Schools is the story of a new teacher recruited to finish the year with a group of African-American students. It does not compare much to Boston Public, the FOX television drama created by David E. Kelley (2000-2004).

Roughly the first half of the book is devoted to profiling Stephen and Stephen’s friends. In a school where some white teachers take minority students to the basement to hit them with a rattan, Kozol knows he and his students have a lot to fight—an entire institution of antagonists. There’s the unnamed Art Teacher, the unnamed Reading Teacher, the flimsy piece of cardboard over the window, racist curriculum, and more.

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Lilian Vo’s Questions in 10th Grade Language Arts, 6th Period, 2011-2012

Does this make sense?

Is there a right or wrong answer?

What do you call a bear with no teeth?

Was the homework supposed to be in the new format?

If I have a rubric for the third draft but not the fourth, do I keep it—or toss it?

Do you mean my strengths as a reader or my strengths as a writer?

Are you asking what I think it is—or what it is?

Do you have tape?

May we test the lighting?

How should we specify page numbers?

Should this conclusion be highlighted in green?

Are people constantly crafting new systems for writing?

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Will the real LouAnne Johnson please stand up?

I decided to read this book after hearing an interview with LouAnne Johnson on NPR’s This American Life. Johnson said the reality of her daily teaching experience wasn’t much like Michelle Pfeiffer’s experiences in Dangerous Minds—a sentiment that made me laugh and nod as I parked my car at a recently-remodeled school filled with smart minority students. I liked this woman—but wait, what? She wrote the book that inspired the Dangerous Minds film?

Yup. I kept listening.

Turns out in the book, Johnson never has her life threatened by a student, like she does in the movie. In addition to teaching Limited English Placement, she teaches an Honors program for gifted students who have some of the academic struggles and behavioral challenges depicted on the big screen, but not to the same degree.

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