Entries Tagged 'leadership' ↓

The longer I teach, the more important I perceive each day to be. This puts me at direct odds with my students, most of whom spend their entire school day trying to kill the clock in any remotely amusing way possible. An hour to them is an eternity, while to me, every minute wasted is [...]

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately about teacher learning (aka professional development). Why? A few reasons: I’m taking a class at UW Oshkosh this summer about professional development and doing research for this class I was selected as one of ten Success at the Core Fellows and this organization is all about professional [...]

“Welcome to White Swan, where you can teach whatever you want – even if it’s nothing at all.” ~ anonymous former colleague ——— “If you can teach here, you can teach anywhere” ~ anonymous colleague ———   I work in a very small rural school located in a high poverty area on an Indian Reservation. Funding is [...]

What can you do today to make yourself a better teacher? I have a confession to make. I’m a learning junkie. There – I said it! Yesterday was the first day of my Winter Break. I’ve been mildly sick all of the last week of school and refusing to stay home because I didn’t want [...]

Why put off for next year what you can do today (or at least tomorrow)? —————————————————————————————————————————- In the 1940′s and 1950′s, the Brooklyn Dodgers fans’ rallying cry was, “wait ’til next year!”  The team would come close to a championship only to lose the World Series (usually to the hated Yankees).  This fan attitude showed undying [...]

I have the utmost respect for unions. I don’t blame teacher’s unions for problems in education. That being said, I do believe there are problems. Obviously, there are funding problems. I’ve seen those first hand. I work on the front lines of education, a rural school on an Indian reservation in an area of extreme [...]

I took a survey 2 weeks ago about our school.  It covered a wide variety of questions, but one stood out to me: The teachers in my school meet as a whole staff to discuss ways to improve teaching and learning. I’m sad to say, I clicked the radio button for ‘Never’ and moved on [...]