In the fall of 1976, I began teaching mathematics to 13 to 19 year-old students. The school was small, as were my classes. I really had it pretty good with five students in my first period Algebra III class and ten were in the Algebra II class. The other classes had between twenty and twenty-five each.
I was one of the many first-year teachers fresh out of college that began their careers at the school. For no fault of my own, I resembled a popular TV teacher. Yes, I reminded the kids of Mr. Kotter. I wasn't sure if it were my hair style of the mid-70s, coupled with the mustache, or the leisure suits that was wearing at the time, but each student felt they needed to play the role of either Vinnie Barbarino, Juan Epstein, or Boom-Boom Washington. Questions were often posed in an Arnold Horshack-like, "ooooh, ooooh, Mistah Kaaaaaw-tah!"
While I really didn't know it then, those were the days.
It is for that reason, when setting up this blog, I chose to use the name Kotter's Class. A throw back to thirty five years ago when I began my career with a group of kids who had far more potential than they ever imagined. My hope was that they learned to like math. Interestingly, during those first couple of years in the classroom, I learned what would be my greatest lesson– that being, kids are our greatest teachers.
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