Bud the Teacher

    By the way, I’ve added a new category to my category listing.  The add has been long overdue.  The new category is called "teacher research."  Teacher research is defined slightly differently by lots of different folks, but here’s one pretty good definition, taken from a review of a one of my favorite teacher research guides:

It is research conducted by
teachers as they go about their daily work.

    That’s a simplistic definition, but there’s a lot in those few words.  Teacher research is the systematic examination of one’s practice, say Marilyn Cochran-Smith and Susan Lytle in their book.  It occurs as a piece of the school day, not as an extra part.  Students and teachers work together to improve learning.  For everybody.
    I’ve been conducting systematic reflections about my classroom on this blog for the last several months.  But I’m not quite to the research stage yet.  So much of who I am as a teacher is about asking good questions and attempting to find and document factually accurate answers.  It’s high time I talk about teacher research in this space.
    Certainly, many of you are already familiar with teacher research.  It’s transformative and affirming to know that one can improve oneself through systematic study.  Especially now, as teachers lose more and more power in the classroom. 
    If teacher research were a web application, it’d probably be a blog.