Purpose of this blog

I am starting this blog to chronicle my life as a new math teacher. I am a career changer who has recently accepted a position to teach secondary-level math in a public school through a program offered through The New Teacher Project (TNTP).  My goals in this blog are to share my experiences as I go through this transformation. I think that doing so will benefit me by allowing me to organize my thoughts and put all of this into perspective, and I hope it will also be a resource for other people who are considering making a career in teaching.

I will not actually begin the TNTP program until this summer, sometime in June 2010. So until then, I am going to use the blog to talk about everything I have learned about pathways to becoming a teacher, as well as books and resources I am using to try to prepare myself for this new career. Once I am actually teaching, I think the blog will focus on my own personal experiences in the classroom, but until then, I will discuss a wider variety of topics that relate to education and teaching math in particular. I hope to post twice a week, although once I am working full-time, I will probably be happy if I can continue with posting just once a week.

I am not much on social networking and I like my privacy. At this time I am choosing to not put my real name and face on this blog. I am going to write anonymously, however I am not a super-stealth ninja who is going to scrutinize each thing I say to see if there is any information that I think people could use to find out who I am. I think anyone who is so determined could easily figure it out, but that most people don't care. I may in the future get braver and be willing to go public, but for now, I think of myself as just “new math teacher”. It is not my intention to use this blog to say mean and nasty things about people or about the school district or program I am in; however I also want to feel free to voice my opinions if I feel it appropriate.

Here's to my first blog post! Hurray!