Though I often relentlessly critique TFA, there are enough almuni who are on staff and who know me from attending my workshop that I still get invited to do a speech at a TFA thing, now and then. Most recently, I was on a panel at a New York Alumni meeting, about 3 years ago.
In 2002 I had my last big invite to a TFA function. They rented out a movie theater and were showing a documentary called ‘The First Year.’ They asked if I would do some kind of keynote speech for after the move. I wrote something about the difference between movie teaching and real teaching, which I was pretty proud of. I eventually submitted it to Teacher Magazine and it got published in there and then I included it, again, in the new edition of ‘Reluctant Disciplinarian.’
I finally put it up on youtube. I hope you like it. (One joke is a bit of an inside joke so here’s some background info so you can be in on it. In New York, teachers call the warm-up activity the ‘Do Now’ — now you are ready to watch.)
