The BS in education (Basic Stuff)

This week we had an in-service that was required to be attended. The gentleman that was speaking was supposed to be an "expert" on education with all these innovative ideas and techniques that are supposed to improve instruction and learning. What I did notice was that this guy was being paid a ridiculous amount of money to come into our district and "revolutionize" the county's' educational strategy. In my short four years of teaching I have seen this happen at least two other times. The problem that I have with this it's that every time someone comes up with a different so called teaching strategy, they expect us teachers to forget about the previously implemented strategy and dive into the new one, without even truly knowing if it will work. I don't understand how one is suppose to be able to find out if the previously implemented strategy works if it's only around for a year or two. To me it seems that education is the opposite of what it's described to be. We teach our students to be leaders and to stand out, but in education, it seems that we do the opposite. In education it seems that we jump into things without really knowing what we are getting into. We do as we are told instead of being innovative we follow what someone else tells us. Aren't teachers suppose to be innovative and fresh? Instead we are drones and slaves to the "newest" things in education. The thing is that most of the time the so called "new strategies" are often the same strategies of the past. The real problem is that every time something "new" is presented, it is often presented in a "one size fits all" manner. I know that realistically we don't have the luxury to create an individual lesson for each child, but we can use different strategies to cater to each class period or block individually. It's not a difficult concept, adapt your lesson to fit the type of class that you have. I know that this may involve money and time, but it is a small sacrifice that we, as educators, must make. I believe that it's important to have new fresh strategies, but it is also important to recognize who we are working for, our students. At the end of the day it doesn't matter what strategies are implemented if the students are not our main focus. Lets get back to what is important, the kids......

Reflections

As the year comes to an end, I often look back and reflect on the school year. As I take a look at many of my seniors, I began to look back at the time when they were all ninth graders. The reason for such deep reflection is, because this graduating class is my first. I think of the moments when those seniors were silly ninth graders that lived in their own world. A world full of silly actions and many silly mistakes. Now I take a look at them and I see a group of mature young people that are ready to take on the world. In the past four years those kids have matured in such a tremendous manner that it would make anyone proud. Most of our students come from difficult backgrounds and impoverish homes; to see them persevere is a joy that cannot be described. Because of the joy and happiness that seeing those kids graduate brings me, that is the reason why I love teaching and that is the reason why we as educators (whether you teach or not) must continue to implement the human aspect into our curriculum.

To save the "forgotten"

As a high school teacher in Florida I have seen the unthinkable happen. When I first started teaching I thought that everyone that was in education was in it for the students, but I quickly found out that some people in education have a different agenda. The reason for choosing education as my career was because I had many caring and intelligent teachers, but when I got into the education career, I quickly realized that it was different. My mission since then has been to help save the "forgotten ones". I would like to know if anyone else has come to the same conclusion?