Class response to the article "Education: Connecting the Lonely Profession" by Suzie Boss.
According to Boss, "nearly one third of the nation's new teachers bail out of the profession within three years of teaching, citing isolation as one of the top reasons for their early exit."
Similarly, Roland Barth suggests that "too many teachers are still stuck in a grown-up version of parallel play...the self-contained classroom, with the door shut and a piece of artwork covering that little pain of glass."
Do you agree with this view of the teaching profession? Are there contributing factors that create this environment? As leaders, how do we begin to change a culture of isolation to one that is more collaborative among educators?
Monday, June 23, 2008
Friday, May 2, 2008
A Good Conference
Today I had the good fortune of attending a conference entitled "What Great Leaders Do Differently." The keynote speaker for the day was Dr. Todd Whitaker. Honestly, I was not sure what to expect, since most conferences have a tendency of falling a bit short of their billing. Nonetheless, I was interested in hearing what Dr. Whitaker had to say.
Seated with a group of my colleagues at a large table amongst several hundred other educators, Dr. Whitaker took to the floor. He was a polished presenter, weaving a message that was important for all educators to hear. Simply put, he talked about the differences between right and wrong. Further, he gave a series of strategies on how to get more people to do the right thing and how to appropriately and respectfully deal with the difficult people who did the wrong thing. Throughout the day, he reiterated how school leaders need to focus on what the best people in the organization are thinking and feeling about matters that relate to the school... Things to address, things to ignore, ways of dealing with both, always seemed to go back to the same simple messages.
I am interested in learning more about Dr. Whitaker's approach to working with people and how to bring about systemic change in an organization. I plan on reading at least three of his books: Dealing with Difficult Teachers, What Great Teachers Do Differently and What Great Principals Do Differently.
Overall, I was glad to have attended the session and feel that I have gained valuable information that can help me be a better, more effective leader.
Seated with a group of my colleagues at a large table amongst several hundred other educators, Dr. Whitaker took to the floor. He was a polished presenter, weaving a message that was important for all educators to hear. Simply put, he talked about the differences between right and wrong. Further, he gave a series of strategies on how to get more people to do the right thing and how to appropriately and respectfully deal with the difficult people who did the wrong thing. Throughout the day, he reiterated how school leaders need to focus on what the best people in the organization are thinking and feeling about matters that relate to the school... Things to address, things to ignore, ways of dealing with both, always seemed to go back to the same simple messages.
I am interested in learning more about Dr. Whitaker's approach to working with people and how to bring about systemic change in an organization. I plan on reading at least three of his books: Dealing with Difficult Teachers, What Great Teachers Do Differently and What Great Principals Do Differently.
Overall, I was glad to have attended the session and feel that I have gained valuable information that can help me be a better, more effective leader.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Getting Started
Technology is just awesome...
I am a relatively young guy, and I remember what life was like when I was growing up. I used to get up really early in the morning. (like my son does now.) I would go downstairs and turn on the television. It was a Zenith Color TV and it had a circular dial on the front that would rotate between channels 2-13 and UHF. There was no remote, you had to get up to change the channel...pre "flipping." If it was before 6am, you had to wait for tv to "come on." There I would wait, staring at the color bars on the screen, listening to a mind-numbing tone. After the Star Spangled Banner was played, alas, Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse would come on and all was right in my world.
As I grew older, I watched cable being installed into the street on my block. A few months later, "Cable TV" was in my house. Cheesy television dial no more...now I had a cable box with a 30 foot cord attached to a smaller box with a row of buttons and a toggle switch. HBO, TBS, ESPN and Nickelodeon were among the first cable channels to appear. As time went on, more and more cable networks were added and the rest is history.
Random thoughts...
BetaVision, VCR's, CD's, Satellite television, Personal Computers, Internet, DVD, HD.....technology has moved pretty quickly in my lifetime...cell phones, ipods, Playstation, XBOX, Wii, Sidekicks, text messaging, youtube, Google...wikis, blogs, podcasts, vodcasts, mashups, second life, tagging, RSS feeds....I can go on...
Technology is exploding everywhere around me and I am having a hard time keeping up..."drowning in technology" is a description I've heard a lot.
I consider myself to be pretty good with technology, but I have much to learn...especially when it comes to this new medium of the "read / write web.
How do we as educators and "digital immigrants" begin to bridge the gap between us and the "digital natives" who come before us in our classes?
Welcome to the machine...
I am a relatively young guy, and I remember what life was like when I was growing up. I used to get up really early in the morning. (like my son does now.) I would go downstairs and turn on the television. It was a Zenith Color TV and it had a circular dial on the front that would rotate between channels 2-13 and UHF. There was no remote, you had to get up to change the channel...pre "flipping." If it was before 6am, you had to wait for tv to "come on." There I would wait, staring at the color bars on the screen, listening to a mind-numbing tone. After the Star Spangled Banner was played, alas, Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse would come on and all was right in my world.
As I grew older, I watched cable being installed into the street on my block. A few months later, "Cable TV" was in my house. Cheesy television dial no more...now I had a cable box with a 30 foot cord attached to a smaller box with a row of buttons and a toggle switch. HBO, TBS, ESPN and Nickelodeon were among the first cable channels to appear. As time went on, more and more cable networks were added and the rest is history.
Random thoughts...
BetaVision, VCR's, CD's, Satellite television, Personal Computers, Internet, DVD, HD.....technology has moved pretty quickly in my lifetime...cell phones, ipods, Playstation, XBOX, Wii, Sidekicks, text messaging, youtube, Google...wikis, blogs, podcasts, vodcasts, mashups, second life, tagging, RSS feeds....I can go on...
Technology is exploding everywhere around me and I am having a hard time keeping up..."drowning in technology" is a description I've heard a lot.
I consider myself to be pretty good with technology, but I have much to learn...especially when it comes to this new medium of the "read / write web.
How do we as educators and "digital immigrants" begin to bridge the gap between us and the "digital natives" who come before us in our classes?
Welcome to the machine...
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