Remember Your First Year of Teaching?

Governor Strickland has proposed a four year residency program for mentoring of new teachers into the profession of teaching.

While I'm sure this won't happen overnight, I'm sure that change will come. There is already talk of no PRAXIS assessments next year.

So, tell me, how can we best support teachers in their first year? What should definitely be a part of our mentoring program for entry year teachers? What should we not be spending time on?

I look forward to hearing what others think. I look forward to redesigning what we do. Change isn't all bad.

Text Message Reminders: Gen. X Teachers vs. Gen Y Students

Interesting conversations I've had over the last few days. It all started when a student asked a teacher if they could text reminders to them about assignments and due dates. So far, I've only discussed this with teachers who would be considered Generation X and the overwhelming theme of their reactions is...."That's not my problem, these kids need to learn to be responsible." I guess I assumed that the teachers closest to the students in age would be the most accepting to this idea. Turns out their not! Am I the only one who gets bill reminder text messages? Combine that with students who have been "scheduled" by their parents for a long time and I think I understand why a student would request that service to continue. Is it enabling? Is it meeting the learners needs? What if the student had the ability to set up these text messages on their own? Is that possible?

My Lucky Four Leaf Clovers

I am so lucky.
I don't think about that enough.
I am lucky to have my health, happiness, family and friends.
At work I am lucky to be surrounded by supportive administration, great technology, teachers with a thirst for knowledge, and an educational concept that works.

What four things are you lucky for?

Pre School vs. High School

I was in a preschool today and I watched the lesson unfold.

It started with an introduction to a letter and its sound,
then the phonics dance,
then the sound train,
then writing words with the letter,
then circling the letters in the words,
then a fishing game for the letter,
then the students wrote the letter.

Why does learning in pre school get to be so involved and then in highschool we use powerpoint and call that for the visual learner and the lecture for the audiatory? Seriously.

This is NOT a workshop

This is not a workshop, nor will any other posts in this blog be. This is not professional development as it has been defined for the last 10 years for teachers. Its my experience that a workshop rarely changes teaching. Experiences change teaching. What has been a professional development experience that changed the way you teach?