I’m seeing lots of opportunities lately, to connect my learning network(s), offline and on. Here’s one – a request from NCTE. Write away, whether you’re an NCTE member or not:
We’re interested in how your teaching has changed�in how you have altered, adjusted, or shifted your habits and expectations�since the time you began teaching. For example, what has changed in your approaches to reading? Writing? Evaluation of students? Use of technology? Confidence level? Rapport with parents? Balance of personal and professional life?
Whether you are a 30-year classroom veteran or a new teacher, you have a story, and we’d like to hear it! Email us 150 words or less describing changes you have made in your teaching and your teaching life. Please include your full name, school name, years of teaching, and a preferred email address or phone number in case we need to contact you. Send stories to chronicle@ncte.org.
We’ll consider stories for a future issue of The Council Chronicle, and will inform you and send you a complimentary copy if your story is published.
I‘d love for you to leave your blurb here in the comments, too. Would be fun to read them.
Thanks for this one, Bud. (I am going to share it over at my blog, too)
This sounds a lot like the book project I am working on, although our focus is more towards not only the change, but how do you assess such work in the classroom.
Adios, friend.
Kevin
PS — I am working on a hyperlink poem project and hope to have it finished in a few days. It’s fun but strange to compose with associative thinking.
Well I am one of the 30 year veterans. I have always loved using technology, starting with hypercard. One of the biggest changes for me is the presentation of material more visually-through Powerpoints, websites and video clips. I keep tweeking my student projects straight writing to blogs, wikis and now podcasting plays. I really want to do more collaborative projects but that is for next year.
PS I love all of the learning I am doing & sharing that with my students. In turn they share cool stuff with me.
I think teaching has changed tremendously since I started! And in many way, I think it’s changed in a way that chases good teachers away from the classroom. As an elementary school teacher for the past 8 years, I was particularly saddened when I watched one young, energetic, motivated and talented teacher leave the profession for good. No matter how much I mentored her, her model for teaching was not sustainable (not to mention her pay as a new, part time teacher was tiny). At our small school the community was devastated to see her go. Then I started researching teacher attrition and conducting interviews with people I knew who left the profession or who were thinking strongly of doing so. Most of the time it is the academics, poiticians and others who are removed from teaching that write books and make comments about teacher attrition. I am writing Why Great Teachers Quit, an in the trenches, real life view of teachers describing their reasons for quitting, along with creative suggestions for ways to change and improve many of these problems.
I need to hear from teachers from all over the country about why they are leaving teaching (or are thinking strongly about doing so– or have thoughts to share about teacher attrition).
Please visit http:// whygreatteachersquit.wordpress.com to answer survey questions, or to write a more open ended response. You will see two posts with more details about the project. Please be sure to include the grade level, geographic region (general), and subject that you teach in your comments.
Please take a moment to stop by and share your perspective. I hope I can use parts of your original post in the chapter on teacher pay.
If you could pass this along to other teachers you know who have recently left, or are thinking of it, I would truly appreciate it!