This will probably be my last post of 2007, and while I’ve been doing some looking back, my brain has been taking me more into what next year might be like. I know a couple of things already: I’ll be spending more of my time working in long term professional development with groups of teachers which hopefully will mean less traveling, and I’ll be committing as much time as I can to getting someone with some vision and real leadership potential elected to the White House. (The next two weeks are going to be interesting to watch.)
But for the last couple of days, my thinking has been framed by a post by Clay Burrell, a presentation by Doc Searles, and a chat with a friend.
Clay’s post reflects a lot of my own angst:
More and more I wonder: is school a good place for teachers who want to make a difference in the lives of their students, and to the future of the world? Is there a way to leave the daily farce of gradebooks, attendance sheets, tests, corporate and statist curriculum, homework assignments, grade-licking college careerist “students†(and parents), fear of parents and administrators, and fear of inconvenient socio-political truths – and at the same time, to make a far more meaningful impact on the lives of the young?…I’m not sure how much longer I want to work for schools. I’d so much rather teach
I hear this from many of the teachers who I get to meet when I’m traveling around. The feel so constrained by the system, by the very narrow expectations that they have to meet, by the fear of reprisal from any number of constituencies. I’ve been really surprised, in fact, by the number of people who have come up to me after hearing me talk about supplementing my own kids education and say something like “when you start your own school for your kids, let me know.” The dissatisfaction with the education their children are getting is palpable.
Add to this Doc Searles’ presentation for LeWeb3 earlier this month titled “Turning the Tables: What happens when users are really in charge.” The part that resonates the way he talks about the “Live Web” being more important that “Web X.n”, the idea that what we’re moving toward is a world where the network is ever present and interact-able. Makes me think on some level the shift that’s happened this year in terms of on demand learning and interaction. The network feels much more present this New Year. And again, it makes me think of how removed this shift is from what’s happening in schools and classrooms.
Finally, I had a Skype chat with a friend this morning, one who has a young son who is very much into this digital world and virtual environments. We were going back and forth about how frustrating the landscape is, and how the principal at her school told her to “put down her sword” in terms of having conversations with her son’s teacher about how to engage him with technology. In fact, her son is now not allowed to “type” anything, meaning he has to leave his laptop at home and write all of his assignments out. Amazing, isn’t it?
All of which started me thinking, about a different model, one that is built on really small groups of students that meet in physical space studying and learning about the topics they are passionate about and who are also connected to other small groups of students with like minded passions from anywhere in the world via the Live Web, where long term collaborations and research and learning can happen over extended periods, all of it real work for real audiences, published and reviewed by engaged readers participants acting as mentors from global audiences. The adults in the room are co-learners with the students but also educators who can model and navigate the skills and competencies, the “network literacies” (sorry, Tom) that the kids in the room need to have to leverage the connections they help facilitate. And there might be some high-level, virtual administration in there somewhere, to make sure the connections and logistices are working. And there might be parents learning alongside their students, and others who are involved at different levels of the process. Regardless, it’s a place where learning is at the heart of everything. Not grades. Not tests. Not college acceptances.
I know, I know. I’m dreaming here. But heck, it’s the New Year. It’s a time for dreaming…
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Will, what you just described is what I tried to create (if I read you right) with Students 2.0. I just posted a reflection about it in which I make the point that I really meant it more as a model of other types of “live web” learning (and gradeless) spaces.
I also hope you’ll hop back in to the comments to the “leaving teaching post.” I replied to your first one, and Eric Hoefler, Graham Wagner, and others are contributing to something that feels a bit pregnant for me.
An early happy new year to you. 🙂
Could it be that my “prediction” may be coming true?
http://professor-marvel.com/blog/2007/11/educational-system-blow-it-up-and-start.html
All satire has a bit of truth. The technology is nearly ready for the online national k12 school.
Clay is someone to whom I can obviously relate. What a great line, “I’m not sure how much longer I want to work for schools. I’d so much rather teach…”
I think I’ll give his blog a look see.
Happy New Year Will.
So Ric,
Does that mean we need a wiki? ;0)
Happy New Year back atcha.
Will,
Your frustration about the growing environmental factors in the place called school that discourage authentic learning has plagued me also this year. Maybe that is why I chose to make my last post for 2007 an inspiring story of authentic learning happening in a small town in Vermont – to keep me encouraged as I enter 2008.
http://www.infinitethinking.org/2007/12/with-countdown-towards-end-of-2007.html
The part that I didn’t publish in this story was a quote from Nilah that this type of learning environment use to be the “NORM” in her classroom, but NCLB has changed things. I was inspired by Nilah’s perserverance and continuing til the very end (her retirement this year) creating authentic learning for her students. The sad part is stories like this should be the “norm” not an occasional beacon of inspiration that stands out. But let’s keep on dreaming… and I certainly encourage others to take my challenge to add their own inspirational stories to the comments to fuel us with vision and dreams for 2008.
Thanks for adding that link, Lucie. Great story, and a great example of a teacher who refuses to be deterred by a lack of technology or connection. Too bad we seem to want to make all of this much harder than it has to be.
OK… I want to comment on the first part of the post, right after Clay’s quote, because that is the part of the process I am actively engaging in right now! I agree wholeheartedly with the rest of the post, but I think we need to solve the political reality of the educational system before we can solve the rest.
Will, you were an English teacher and you come from that perspective in many of the things you discuss here. I was a Social Science teacher and come from that perspective. I taught American Government for several years and encouraged my students to use their First Amendment rights to improve their lives.
When I discussed political power, I used a series of two videos produced by PBS showing how two different groups attempted to acquire political power. You can either work from within the current political structure or from outside of it. One of these videos was a documentary of the Black Panther Party and their rise in Oakland. They skirted the law by parolling the streets with unloaded rifles and exerted political force by organizing those disenfranchised by the current structures. The BPP also did many other things that went unnoticed, like child care and breakfast programs for school aged children. The other video was a documentary of Adam Clayton Powell, the African-American Congressman from Harlem. He rose in political power by using the power of the Baptist Church to get himself elected to the House of Representatives. He became an influential figure in Congress by proposing amendments to each and every bill passed that funding had to be in accordance to civil rights legislation. He was particularly influential in education legislation. His own personal abuses led to his downfall.
So, the question becomes: Are you going to work within the current political reality (Adam Clayton Powell) or are you going to work outside the current structures (Black Panther Party) to change the system?
Personally, I have decided to take the path or working within the current system. I have taken it upon myself to get an administrative credential and I am currently seeking administrative positions to change the current structure of education. I am not saying that one is better than the other, I have just decided to take one path. This does not mean that I have been mute on the other side, I was sending my blog posts out to all 400 teachers until I received a ‘cease and desist’ e-mail from the district admininstration.
The reality of the situation is that we need both. We need people working within and outside of the current system to make real change happen. Let’s hope that 2008 is the year that the forces inside and outside meet in the middle to make real change happen!
Kyle, thanks for the comment and for your thoughtful action and reaction to the education world right now. And I do wish you luck in your administrative pursuits. And when you run for political office, let me know, and I’ll do what I can do to get you elected. ;0)
Seriously, I do hope you change your system. But “The System” needs some real leadership on a national level to begin to find relevance again. I know that both you and Clay (and I) would love to see the tipping point of teachers doing good work make systemic change happen. But I have no doubt it won’t happen while my own kids are in school and little faith that I’ll see it in my lifetime. Which is why an alternative is sounding better and better.
Seriously, thanks for your thoughts. Have a great New Year.
I want to comment on Kyle’s comment. He summed up really well how I felt after I read Clay’s post on leaving schools so he could really teach. When I read Clay’s post I couldn’t help but think of a few colleagues I’ve had who had a real gift when it came to teaching and connecting with kids, but who became so discouraged and disenfranchised that they left teaching. Of course it makes sense that it’s the teachers who are really passionate about teaching that are going to be discouraged the most by the constraints of schooling as we currently know it.
Thank you for writing so eloquently about working for change both from inside and outside the current structures. Working for change takes courage, regardless of the path chosen.
Will,
The frustration you’re feeling here is echoed by Herbert Kohl in the book I was telling you about — Stupidity and Tears. One of his central questions is how do teachers and students function in a system that essentially requires them to act stupidly. It’s a brilliant, brilliant read.
Also, the kind of school you describe sounds a lot like the Free School movement of which Summerhill is probably the most famous.
Here’s the Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_school and I know the Brooklyn Free School was written about last year in the NY Times. I’ve always wanted to go visit a Free School… road trip?
To piggyback on Chris’ referencing of the Free Skools movement, there’s also the Sudbury Schools, of which Fairhaven is an example. Danny Mydlack has posted all of his excellent documentary about Fairhaven, “Voices from the New American Schoolhouse,” in segments on YouTube. Well worth it the watch.
I have begun to feel a lot like clay over the past few years. This year has been really tough as I wonder what are they really teaching my 8 & 9 year olds in school. I have thought about starting a private school in which technology is embraced not outlawed. I am just not sure how many parents really understand what is going on in the schools were they send their children day after day. I can only hope that 2008 will show improvements in the system. Like Kyle stated in his comment maybe we can change the system from within. I’ll keep trying.
Happy News and look forward to seeing you at NECC in San Antonio.
There is a lot of talk about the “system” here and that’s exactly where the problem lies. We need to look at the system (schools/districts) as a whole and how we can implement change throughout the entire system. There needs to be more discussion throughout school districts on how to change the system…not just one part of the system. Margaret Wheatley describes this “irritation” in the system….it only takes a little irritation in the system (the above comment about becoming the administrator that tries to implement change or the teacher who is trying these things in his/her classroom on his/her own) for everyone to take notice and then… “As different parts of the system hear it, interpret it, and change it, the disturbance grows and mutates. It becomes quite distorted from the original information, but as it circulates, it develops greater meaning. If it keeps traveling in the network, it finally becomes so important that it cannot be ignored. The whole system now sits up and takes notice†(Wheatley, 1999). TADA….we have a system that uses technology as tools throughout the system!!!
Megan…I don’t disagree that “The System” will eventually change from internal innovation and change. I just don’t think it’s going to happen any time soon. Actually, it will probably happen when enough people start opting out for something different.
Thanks for the comment.
Organic change is what I am seeing in schools. It is very slow and frustrating for some and too fast for others. Just think about the huge differences in schools and use of technology in the last 15 years.
The system needs to have people (like many in this discussion) who are pushing the edges and shaking things up, but there are still so many barriers in schools to transparent use of technology for learning.
Some of us need to go into administration to move for change that way. Some of us need to continue as classroom teachers showing that teaching and learning can be different. Some of us need to be facilitators, helping to bring down the barriers so that teachers can grow. Some of us need to be blog-writers and national speakers who challenge and have a bigger vision.
Wil, I think you are doing the right thing… what you are gifted at. You are helping us all to think and work for change. You are being an example for your kids of using the gifts you were given to help others make things better in our world.
I agree with Megan that real change in our education “system” will only come from within. People (re: politicians) have been trying to “reform” schools for decades and only by rearranging the pieces already in place. The fundamental structure of the American “school” has not changed in sixty or more years and I’m afraid that most of society is far too comfortable with it to want large scale alterations.
However, as Will notes, little “irritations” only bring about changes very slowly. It’s going to take a substantial number of educators who are willing to take a chance, experiment with some new approaches, and make some loud noises about what they’re doing.
Or it will take a substantial number of students who get tired of being cut off from their personal learning networks for most of the day and a large chunk of the year and refuse to go along.
Unfortunately, I don’t see signs of either happening.
Will,
The “outside the system” learning environments sound like what Seymour Papert was expecting back in 1980. See Mindstorms – Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas Chapter 8 – Images of the Learning Society. Paper seemed to predict that schools would not harness the constructive power of the computer and discussed possible venues for such use. I discussed this last week on my blog (http://www.g4classes.com/learningforward) in a post named “Public Schools, Private Schools, Samba Schools”.
Thanks for the link Kent…I’m sure Gary Stager will be along here now at any moment! ;0)
Will,
If this question if too far off-subject, feel free to delete it.
A question has been nagging me… and your post and the comments have brought it back to the surface. Are the schools (the way they are now) damaging to our kids? If so, in what ways do you see it as harmful (how does it hurt the kids)? I’m not asking about the overall “net” effect of the schools here… in other words, I don’t want to consider the question of the good the school does minus the harm it does – just if the schools are doing harm.
It’s an important question, Kent. But it’s hard for me to say yes or no. I keep looking at my own kids, thinking about what their school experience is teaching them. In the sense that it is giving them a very narrow portrait of the world in terms of cultures and ideas, yes. In the sense that it is unable to understand the ways in which technologies are creating new opportunities for learning, yes. In the sense that in a myriad of ways the school is unable to address the complexities of this world with the freedom and creativity that such discussions require, yes again. There is harm in every one of those in that my kids are not being as well prepared as they can be. In the sense that my kids are loved and kept safe and cared for, they are. In that respect, it could be much worse, I know, and many, many other kids around this country are in fact being harmed by the environments they attend every day.
Considering all of that as I write it now, I should withdraw my kids from the system. I am, and I’m not feeling proud of this, using the system to baby sit them while I pursue my own career and goals knowing full well that their learning needs are not being met. That’s why I want an alternative that works. And that’s why I may just have to resolve (good timing) to do something about that in 2008.
Will, I think I can feel the pain in your comment. I feel it, too. But our kids will be fine. We have the time, knowledge, and money to help them through this mess (or move them to a less messy environment). And we have the tenacity to hope there is something better – and try to find or build it. But for the nation’s sake, we need solutions that can work for a great number of kids – especially for those in really bad educational environments with no hope for anything better.
THANK YOU!!!!! for pointing this out, Kent. It’s what keeps me trying to work from “inside” the system. I think we need people who have the freedom to work without the barriers some of us find from within the system ALONG with people who haven’t given up trying to work within the system to keep having these types of dialogues TOGETHER. GREAT conversation!
I agree…we need solutions for a great number of kids. But our thinking right now seems so caged in by the idea of the current system. Surely there have to be alternatives that will serve many and serve them well but may look much different from what we have now.
Will,
I feel as though I came late to this party & someone had already put the noisemakers away & turned out the lights…
Perhaps oddly much like the paradox we as educators face in our so called “modern” classrooms. As some of us seek to change, experiment, innovate, and truly “connect” with students, our local school adminstrators & politicians continue to completely stifle our honest efforts by emphasizing “test scores” & other so called “common assessments” -supposedly geared to “showcase” local,statewide, & national “student progress”-how SADLY ironic is that! Yikes!
I guess all we can do is to “keep the faith” & continue trying to change the educational “system” from within!
Kent, I know you asked Will, hope you don’t mind me chiming in.
I’d say definitely yes, in many ways.
Bullying would be far less a problem if our youths weren’t forcibly herded into age-homogeneous cells too large to monitor for nine daily months of the year. To the bullied, school is a daily prison they cannot free themselves from. They could surely learn elsewhere.
As for how schools kill creativity and curiosity, and make learning aversive by prescribing cookie-cutter “units” for one and all to “master” (theoretically, though in practice, to be labeled closer to “unexceptional,” in most cases), go to Quotiki.com and check out a search with “Einstein” and “education” to hear how he hated science because of school.
Then there’s the opportunity/cost argument. Don’t you ever ask yourself what you might be if you were free to have spent all those thousands of hours in school studying things you never cared about then, and still don’t now (and probably neither remember nor use), instead pursuing learning of your own inclination and interest?
As a high school teacher, I’m hard-pressed to see anything schools do that really _are_ good for the majority of students – at least that couldn’t be done outside of schools.
And let’s not even begin to discuss student alienation from the real world they live in, and the practice of that once-upon-a-time American thing called informed and active citizenship. Schools can’t teach any sort of political action – they’d be sued, and teachers fired, if they tried to oppose the economic and religious norms of the day, no matter how destructive both often are.
How do you see schools as doing good by the young? Serious question.
Clay, thanks for the input. I’m certainly not going to argue that schools are good for kids… I’ve been reading Stager and Kohn too long. I’m just looking for input from educators on specific ways the schools harm the kids. As we are stuck with the schools for now (are we? this is an assumption), maybe there are ways to put together clubs, programs, etc, (Saturday Scratch Camp, Computer Club, IEEE’s Future City, botball,…) OUTSIDE of school that could possibly mitigate some of the harm and create a model for a better future system. Just dreaming…
Hi Will,
I’m sure you’re aware of the many sites about “schools of the future.” The wiki page I like to collect thoughts on for this topic is at: http://schoolcomputing.wikia.com/wiki/Designing_the_21st_Century_School Perhaps this could be broken out into a wiki unto itself. There is also a discussion on the isenet ning about the origins of our current high school curriculum http://isenet.ning.com/forum/topic/show?id=1194706%3ATopic%3A9984 with sugestion for a new “committee of 10” — you’d get my vote for this committee 🙂
best regards, Demetri
The system is not just the local school boards, it is the education industrial complex. Just like the military industrial complex there are layers and layers of groups and companies feeding at the trough of the education industry. Textbook publishers, school bus companies, school bus manufactures, school equipment manufactures, school equipment suppliers, teacher’s unions, professional organizations, daycare centers, and then the whole college industrial complex. None of these groups are going to risk loosing what has taken years to build and have influence over. They make business decisions based on what is best for the business and not children. Will, would you be able to make a living if it were not for the education system?
The problems is how do we educate millions of children to become contributing/active citizens of the world? What part of the business model works for education? Can all students and all communities benefit from “open schools”?
Will is correct, any real change will not happen soon, look how long it took to get here. But, as the Buddha said, change happens.
Thanks for the comment, Jim.
In answer to your question, yes, I would be able to make a living. ;0) If things change quickly in education, however, I’m out of a job. That would be a good thing.
Jim, you nail it so well. While I don’t claim this idea for exposing the damning effects of all the educational interest groups – ETS, College Board, textbook publishers, teachers’ unions (?), etc – I do think it would be easy enough to do, and some mischievous fun raising hell for the Good. Be sure to read the comments if you go there.
I have to agree that there is much I would like to change in the education system. I find myself creating media rich lessons not just for the students at my school but helping the neighbors children as well. Teachers seem to good at assigning tasks but not in giving kids the tools to complete them using methods they are familar with. My son’s school seems to see his computer time as keyboarding class… but that too is changing.
However I have noticed some positive signs of change and since there is new year on the horizon, perhaps this is the time for positive thinking!
First I have to say that I am learning from so many other teachers at Classroom 2.0 and spending time educating myself, that the excitement has carried over to my students. I am posted at a new building this year and the kids have risen to the challenge of using technology to enhance their learning. They have talked about it so much, and the fact that it made such a positive impact on their learning, has made the classroom teachers taken notice!
The computer lab is full all the time-I can’t remember the last time I actually ate lunch(Needed to lose weight anyway). My wiki page has taken on a life of it’s own. From a space I initially intended to use as an electronic newsletter, it has grown to house lesson plans, support tools, students projects and so much more.
After I got the first teacher to work with me on her Biome project and the children exceeded all her expectations–well– word spread like wildfire.I am doing an inservice for the staff when we get back in the New Year, and they are not only positive but actually excited!
Technology tools provide the resources to make project based, differentiated, instruction possible. Recently at my own child’s conference I was able to get a 504 plan written for his ADHD that allows him to type his weekly journal entries, and I recently created a lesson page on my wiki his class is using.
So don’t get discouraged..we are changing the face of education- and what is the alternative–do nothing? I believe-we need to use all the tools available to us to empower children. If the kids need to drag their teachers along behind them-so be it for the short term. When the results of kids learning with media rich lesson show such promise–change will occur!
It’s a new year and all things are possible!
Thanks to David Jakes for pointing me here via Twitter; this is surely a discussion worth following.
Will’s, and others’, points about where the change is coming from, whether internal or external, cannot be examined without really looking at what Jim Walker said above: there is too much invested in this complex for it to just roll over and let common sense and good practice take over. However, for those of us in the system of education, public education especially, where does that leave us? I am not just going to turn tail and run to an independent school so I can be surrounded by an environment that is more conducive to the style of teaching I want to see. There is too much invested in the group of students that are within my sphere of influence, that I am not easily going to give in like that.
What I admired about the network of educational bloggers and administrators from my first exposure was the willingness to be a grassroots movement. I still feel, and I may lack Will’s perspective, that we will gain enough critical mass eventually and cause the type of change we want to see. If we don’t, the students, like those of Student’s 2.0, will do it for us.
I truly believe that the outcome of all of this will be closer to what we want for our students and our own children than what we think. We just have to keep showing students and their parents what they could be doing rather as compared to what they are doing.
Patrick,
Thanks for the comment, and I hope you are right. But I have to be honest; while Students 2.0 is a noble undertaking, those bloggers represent and incredibly small percentage of kids in schools, the vast majority of whom have been taught and who are actively engaged in playing the game with the rules we’ve written over the last 100 years. WIth all of the entities that Jim points to, I just don’t know how those rules get changed to any great degree in a short timeframe or from the bottom up. Hope I’m wrong.
Patrick,
Here’s a funny one: as the “founder” of Students 2.0, I have no illusions about it creating any significant breakthroughs in the mainstream school system.
Still, I do hope that some educators will see it as a model worth adapting for similar purposes in different contexts – but I’m not even sure that’s a realistic hope.
My hopes for 2008? Lob network-marketed grenades at NCLB, network filters, the textbook industry, and other “education-industrial complex” juggernauts (and at politicians and presidential candidates) a la the Students 2.0 twitter-del.icio.us blitz – and leave traditional schools for more adventurous pursuits.
Happy new year, all!
I have been unschooling my kids for a long time. My nest is nigh on empty, but I have a lot of experience to share here. I wrote you an open letter at tex2all if you want to take a look. Take heart.
Terry, where is the link to that letter? Unschooling is a top interest of mine. Want to learn more. Don’t see a link in your comment!
Clay,
I found Terry’s letter on her website, but need to scroll down.
http://tex2all.com/archives/395
Thanks for such an engaging conversation, Will. As I read about your efforts to supplement your own childrens’ education I always think about how lucky they are. They have parents who show an interest in their education and who look beyond just getting from one grade to another and look at how what they are learning (or not learning?) will impact them for the rest of their lives. Some parents have made the choice to pull their kids out of public schools so that they can have some of the things we are all know they need.
But what about those other kids? What about the ones whose parents think that taking spelling tests and memorizing the state capitals are important because that’s what they did when they were in school? What about the ones whose parents are so busy making ends meet that they don’t have the energy or resources to supplement their kids’ education? Or…what about the ones who are lucky if they have a parent at home who even knows they’re alive? Who is going to supplement their education? Who is going to find them a better alternative? I’m not (necessarily) blaming parents here…the majority of them are doing the best they know how. But we are the professionals here…they trust us to be doing the right thing for their kids. I guess this means that part of our job is to educate parents as well…but that can be another entire conversation.
As difficult a hill as it will be to climb, I think that it is crucial that we fight to improve public education because it serves (or should serve) ALL children. I think you are right…when enough people start opting for other answers, maybe then public education will sit up and take notice. Until then…and for those kids who will remain in our classrooms… I will keep working one child and one teacher and one classroom at a time to make changes in the system – or at least in my little corner of it.
As Kyle mentioned above, it will take all of us working both inside and outside the system to make change happen. I applaud the efforts of everyone involved in this wonderful conversation. Here’s to our collective efforts in 2008!
Last night I had a dream…..
Student / Teacher ratio – 5:1
No classrooms as such…
Community based…..
Pity it was just a dream!
‘I have a dream…..’
How about teachers as free agents not tied to a school, administrator, system, etc.? With place and time being less and less of a pedagogical impediment, I’m sure there are many excellent, passionate teachers out there who would love to teach online, having their own group of students who are paying them directly for their teaching services.
The biggest challenge is in accreditation. The system now is basically closed. We need a new accrediting body that will allow free agents to teach online.
What would such an accrediting body look for in the free agents?
How would it come about?
It is indeed sad that the very instritution set up to help children often put so much paper work and regulations enforce,that they get in the way of learning. Right now I am working without a contract as our superintendant wants us to work another 6 1/2 hours per week “at the administration direction”, and add 2 days on to the school year, up’s the amount of insurance we pay, and requires lesson plans to be done in triplicate. The general feeling is that he wants us to provide free child care after school, and that more paper work makes better teachers.
Now most of us, everyone in the buildings I work at, are already working after school to tutor kids, fill out the endless forms that every new government program requires. We also go to inservice classes after school not to mention the correcting of work and setting up of new engaging assignments. Adding 1 hour and 15 minutes to the school days means-offical school time would end at 5:00-which means instead of getting out by 6:30 like I do now it would be more like 7:30. Let’s not forget that for me school starts at 8:00 so I am in the building at 7:30-children leave between 3:15-3:30-teacher dismissal 4:00. Tutoring between 4:00-5:00 is perfect. After that I have time to prepare for the next day.
There are days you want to say-can you’ yall just let me teach! The hours of paper work that no one looks at saps my energy. The disrespect from so many who have never walked in our shoes, yet feel they can do it better-yep there are days it is discouraging. I bet ost of us have had those days.
Then there are those other days- when an 8th grader pops in after class and says- I just wanted you to know that it worked and I passed my Math test. (From a kid who told you for months he hated school!)Or when you hear a students yell YES! because the squeak or Scratch program worked!
So I overlook the administrators who JUST DON”T GET IT. Find time to do the paper work that makes them happy, and focus on the kids. It is all I can do! Some days it doesn’t seem like it is enough-other days it is the best job in the world because in my own way-I made a positive different in the life a child.
I am a columnist for the Bangor Daily News in Maine as well as a classroom teacher. Since hearing you at ACTEM 2007, you are my current educational guru. So I quoted you in today’s column: http://bangornews.com/news/t/news.aspx?articleid=159158&zoneid=605
Thanks for being an inspiration!
You have to wonder why this topic is taking so long to stop rippling (and beginning to morph as it does ripple).
If anybody’s game, I added my response to Chris’ post trackbacked above.