My Hopes for this Blog

My previous blog, Outstanding West Hawaii Educators, was supposed to have been a blog about that. What I found out is that teachers are generally humble and not comfortable with talking about the good they are doing in their classrooms and schools. I mean, they'll talk about it, but they don't want to be written about. I ended up writing about the challenges we were having in Hawaii, as well as some reflections I made about my own professional life. I will try to expand the other blog, but unless I can figure out how to get teachers to let their light shine, it may be slow going.

 This year, I am toying with the idea of retiring. If I do, it will come with penalties. I have to tell you this to give context for my frame of mind.

For this one, I hope to use it to document my successes as being the teacher I have always wanted to be. I remember I was very close to that before No Child Left Behind.  Cooperative Learning, Multiple Intelligences, Critical Thinking, Work Sampling System, Inquiry Science. These were exciting developments for me.

For the past 10 or so years of top-down education "reform," my job satisfaction has gotten progressively worse. If I ever feel good about anything I do as a teacher, it's because I do something that goes against the grain, rather than with the grain. This happens mostly in science, which always takes a back seat to math.

Since I  am thinking of retiring, I want my last year or years to be the best of my career. I want to be the teacher I want to be, rather than the teacher I find myself being turned into -ruled by the "test," by "standards," by other people's goals for me and my students, rather than what is right and good for the students.

So, this will be my goal and intention. The test still looms heavily, even though it's based on growth, rather than a single best score in relation to a "proficient" cut score. We have new standards, the so-called Common Core State Standards. We have a new educator evaluation system, which is being piloted this year. I will be writing about all these trials and tribulations, I'm sure.

But, tonight, the night before the first day of school, I have hopes for a good year, the best of my career.  Hope you will follow my journey.