Tony Danza begins reality-TV teaching in Phila.

About 1,000 new teachers staffed Philadelphia classrooms yesterday.

But there was only one actor-turned-educator, and all eyes were on him.

Tony Danza started his English-teaching gig at Northeast High yesterday. He's filming Teach, an A&E reality show, at the school.

Danza, who has a degree in history education, is not certified to teach, but is sharing his one class a day with a credentialed teacher. His 26 sophomore students were cast from among Northeast's performing arts pupils.

The star was not giving interviews yesterday, but he dished about first-day jitters on his blog (www.dailydanza.com).

"I am scared, but so are most of the other teachers I have met," Danza wrote.

He decorated his classroom with inspirational sayings, he wrote. One reads: "No moaning, no groaning."

More of Danza's impressions: The school is big (it really is - Northeast, with 3,074 students, takes up a city block). Teachers, whom he calls "warriors," don't get enough respect. And the job is tough, even before a single student walks in the door.

"The teacher faces an ever-growing list of demands, and a mountain of paperwork. There are countless meetings and requirements that are time-consuming and sometimes very frustrating," he wrote.

Danza even made a stop in senior Jake Lipschutz's piano class.

"He was quiet, just observing everything," Lipschutz said. "It was weird to have cameras around."

The cameras didn't faze William Morgan, 14, a sophomore.

"He's cool," Morgan said. "He's a down-to-earth person. It's not like he's walking around with a bodyguard."

One student in Danza's class said that he gave homework the first day and that he asked the students to write about something important to them.

There were three cameras and a microphone on the ceiling, said the student, who asked that her name be withheld because the production company does not want her to speak. Danza was nice, she said. He was a typical new teacher, and he told them he was organized until they arrived.

But not everyone was star-struck.

"I don't even know who that is," said Maurice Brown, 16.

Last night, Danza spoke to parents at a meeting at the school.

In his eight-minute talk, he said he picked Northeast because "it gives you a real look at urban education, and it gives you a look at middle America more than New York does." He was dressed in a black Northeast High shirt and black sweat pants.

One parent asked what made Danza qualified to teach. He said he was in the process of becoming certified and had spent months preparing.

He said he would open an e-mail account so parents and students had direct access to him.

Afterward, some parents said their initial concerns had been eased.

"I had my doubts because it was 'reality TV,' " said Caroline Clark, 42, whose son, Nicholas, 15, is in Danza's class.

Now, she said, she accepts the producers' promise that the show will be "responsible reality."