Angry first post!

Welcome to this first blog post! My name is Annie, and I’m a third-year special education teacher in Chicago Public Schools. In order to practice articulating my thoughts and opinions about education in a coherent manner, I’ve decided to start a blog! Wahoo to self-empowerment, knowledge-building, and pushing for action. As a pretty new teacher, I’m increasingly disgusted, angered by, and fed up with the education policies being pushed in our (American) education system.

Part of the moniker “Angry Teacher” comes from a blog I’ve read for years called Angry Asian Man. . Just as Phil uses “angry” to turn a head on stereotypical views of Asians and to push for a wider view of Asians, I use the term “Angry Teacher” to push for a more complete view of teachers. I am fed up with the views of teachers as lazy, highly-paid, can’t-be-fired, and the reason for education failure in this country. I’m not “just a teacher”.  We’re people who think critically about what’s going on and who work every day to make sure our students get the best education they can. And so many of us are pissed.

A little more on me-

• Born and raised in Chinatown, NYC. I’m Chinese American, born to immigrants, and a bit multilingual. 
• I’ve wanted to be a teacher since I was 6. 
• In college, I focused on urban studies and ed activism in NYC. That’s where I learned about the pesky GERM “neoliberalism”.
• I once was on the inside of what I consider ed DEform. In order to switch from elementary ed to special ed, I started off with Teach For America— and was kicked out after a year. POW! (Michelle Gunderson told me once that this was a badass status to have. After reflecting, I own it). My experience certainly informs my resistant views. #resistTFA
• Today I teach wonderful students with autism and other cognitive and developmental disabilities. I teach in a school with a primarily Latino and low-income population. 
• Proud member of the Chicago Teachers Union and the Caucus of Rank-and-File Educators (CORE)!
• You can follow me on Twitter at @angryteachr (WHAT? It’s the same name as your WordPress? No way.)

This is the first time I’m writing a blog publicly using my name. It’s scary– I’m worried about backlash. But I have to begin standing for my views and putting them out there. I can’t be the advocate I want to be for my kids if I’m not honest with myself and my views first.

The future? I plan to intermingle this blog with education news I see coming up but also any news that I find attending to education and our society today. I’ll try to link pieces here and there, especially ones that were foundational to helping me find my place in education today, to help out with my line of thinking. As a teacher, I’ll probably mix in my own teaching philosophy and things going on in my classroom. As a teacher of color, I’ll certainly post about intersections of identity and how that complicates all this ed speak. #educolor And I’m sure to bring up how class is essential to and complicates the ed picture even more.

For me–happy writing!

And for you–happy reading!

Annie