180 Days: A Teacher's Diary Through One Epic School Year by Sofia Faye Burke

After 20 years in the classroom, I always love to hear about other teachers' successes, failures, and classroom stories. The school year is always a wild ride, no matter what the age level. And I also love to share those stories. Check out an excerpt before you download your own copy. I chose one that really reminded me of my own classroom. Follow the rest of the tour for even more. And of course, enter the giveaway!

180 Days: A Teacher's Diary Through One Epic School Year

180 Days is a fly on the wall experience into a high school classroom over one full school year (180 days to be exact).

Written as a diary by a teacher who was struggling to cope with everything from educational reform to school shootings, this work unfolds via the teachers’ lens of controlled chaos in a broken system. This book takes the reader on a journey from the dilemma of how to make it to the restroom and back before the bell rings to the agony of an active shooter training day, including acceptance of a newfound form of professional development.

Mrs. Burke writes about the daily challenges and rewards of life within the four walls of her classroom. The work is gritty, hilarious, and heart breaking at the same time. Hang on, a school year is one wild ride.

Read an excerpt:

On another fun note, today was fabulous picture day! This is when all students and staff go down to the cafeteria to have their school pictures taken for the yearbook. School photos are a fun notion when presented to you early on in the school year but then you get the images back two months later, suddenly you start talking to yourself, posing questions like: “Is that me?” “Do I look like that?” WTF? Now I just want to avoid the entire school photo process as the images are simply weird. They must have a schoolmarm filter.

Teacher Confessional: Do teachers really swear? Fuckin’ A, yes! We swear on bad days. But not in front of students. Maybe I should start as kids always love the teacher who swears in class. I think they relate and think it’s cool, but those same teachers talk of drinking “juices” and smoking for “medicinal purposes.” Not the best role model in my view.

Day 11: Student started to cry 9th period. Oh, I feel absolutely terrible. But it ended well. She was arguing with me about the directions and I asked her to go out of the room to talk, as I do not like to speak to kids in front of the class regarding discipline if I can avoid it. It just embarrasses students and they resent it.

I met her in the hall and she agreed that she was disrespectful. When you take away the audience, students immediately calm down and talk honestly. But then she broke out in tears and I asked her what was wrong. She told me she is bipolar and so everything is very sensitive for her. I apologized and asked her if she needed a break from class and she took a walk around the hall. She did not want to come back in so I logged off for her. I feel awful for her; you never know what is going on inside the students until you start to peel away those onion layers.

Sofia Faye Burke will be awarding a $20 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

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