Tuesday, November 6, 2012

my sentence


My sentence:  

With knowledge, resources, and energy
she gave teachers the time to be better.

I want teachers to be better.

It's the teacher that counts.
Not the tech.
Not the degree.
Not the school.
Not the admin.
Not the school district's mission, vision, policy or hiring practice.
Not even the question of public school or private (dammit!).
It's the teacher who makes it.

A great teacher will be a great teacher in a dusty hut, an uninspiring teacher will be uninspiring in a beautiful building with lots of funding in a first world, la-dee-dah private school.

I want teachers to be better.
  • Knowledge. Get connected and you'll get the knowledge. Do it now.
  • Resources. Let those of us who love curation do the ground work for you. Follow us.
  • Energy. What are teachers spending most of their time doing? Stop having them do that and start giving them time to plan and implement great projects for students.
(things to stop, marking, testing, planning if it's been done before, learning new grade assignments, paperwork that has nothing to do with teaching kids, unorganized record keeping)

I didn't want the world to be my classroom.


I wanted my world to be a small start up business in which I get to hire only the best most effectiveoptimisticdelightful, hard working, passionate people. 

It isn't like that. The world is a classroom. Some of the people are going to be skilled, some will not. Some will bring happy positive energy to everyone they meet, some will not. Some will know how to be better, some will not. My children's teachers may not be the start-up new hires I dream of. If success is a question of contribution rather than one of achievement, what will I contribute to make the classroom better? 

The University of Victoria made me a part of their classroom. Valerie Irvine posted her graduate studies course online, free for anyone. I shouldn't be in her classroom. It's kinda over my head. I haven't taken the time to read all of the material, watch all the videos, and I won't finish by the end of this week as the course suggests. Doesn't matter. #CEETopen let me in. So did Verena Roberts. They let anyone in. 

And that's how I came up with my sentence. So thank you Learn Now BC, UVic, CEET Meets, twitter, and #tietalk. I'm enjoying this leg of my Tweetucation. 


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