This is a big step for me. For too long, except here on the HuffPost, I have lived in the world of anonymity, or better yet, using a pseudonym. I feel that doing this only has led me and my views to have less credibility and has affected my writing...

Why do teachers need tenure? Because all it takes is ONE. Just ONE can ruin a career, ruin a family, and ruin a life.

All it takes is ONE student, ONE parent, ONE teacher, or just ONE person with a bone to pick to create any type of accusation that...

I got very sad news last Sunday night, May 15. My friend, Stuart Schmelz, AP at IS 162 in the Bronx passed away Thursday.

I have known Stu for almost 16 years. I met him the very first day I started teaching. I took an instant liking to Stu. He...

In March of 2010 we had the elections for the United Federation of Teachers. Somehow, someway, the Unity caucus, headed by President Mike Mulgrew, received 91 percent of the vote. How could that have been with over two thousand ATRs, and at the time, almost a thousand Rubber Room inmates,...

Many years ago, I traveled to Albany to hand in paperwork at the state education department. This was back in the day, when the offices were in the same building as the New York State Museum. With such important paperwork, I felt that it was better to hand it off...

Last week the teachers of New York City came thisclose to losing our seniority rights. Thanks to alleged Bloomberg ally New York State Senator John Flanagan (R), Suffolk County, who just happens to be chairman of the senate education committee, the bill squeaked through the State...

I love my son unconditionally. I am also lucky. He is quite smart, and has a knack for math that I never had.

He is in fourth grade, will be 10 years old in June, and like most boys his age he thinks dear old dad is a dork....

I have come to the conclusion that as a teacher I do not live in the real world. My reality is no longer real.

What has brought this on? The arguments being made of late that in the private sector, or real world if you will, that personnel decisions, such...

Sorry if I am late for the party. I'm thinking back to September when I posted on Twitter about a speech Michelle Rhee had made at the Columbia Heights Education Campus in Washington DC.

Rhee before a gathering was recounting her early days as an educator and the miscues that...

In the December 6, 2010 issue of Newsweek, the seemingly and suddenly expert on education Bill Gates wowed us with his convoluted expertise on education. Gates in an article written by "journalist" Jonathan Alter lamented that teacher tenure is a "quality killer." Quality how so Bill? I think...

We all remember where we were for certain historical events. I was a boy of 10, my family and I on our way to Lake George when Gerald Ford was sworn in as president. When I was 17 I was in my bedroom watching Monday Night Football when word came...

Back on October 10 of this year, the United States of America, in fact all of mankind, was blessed to have NYC schools chancellor Joel Klein bless us with a Manifesto, like The Burning Bush talking to Moses.

So many ideas, so many thoughts came across in Uncle...

On Tuesday, June 22, 2010, a parent's worst nightmare occurred. Nicole Suriel of the Columbia Secondary School drowned off the beach of Long Beach, Long Island, while caught up in a riptide. What makes this so ultimately tragic is that Nicole was on a field trip,...