A blog about Learning, about Education, about transformation, about change, about youth voice, about democratic human centered education. I am trying to ask the question "Why we educate" and what my answer means to me as a teacher and how my role shapes society and the whole.
I am an educator when I weave pictures and stories into documentaries about issues that I feel are important.
I am an educator when I discuss new things that I learn with the people around me.
I am an educator when I ask questions of myself and others.
I am an educator when I ask a child how many marbles they have instead of just giving them some and letting them play by themselves.
I am an educator when I try to open my heart and let others know that they are doing well.
I am an educator when I try to educate myself on what is going on in the world.
Inclusion and Standardized Tests
Plans can be important… but it’s important to ask who the plans are for. Most school districts have education plans. So I want to know… who are these education plans for? I am familiar with one school district’s education plan where one of their goals is Inclusion of All Students. The priorities for this goal … Continue reading »
Support Save our Schools
On my Twitter avatar I have chosen to show support for American educators who rightfully see corporate reform efforts to link their pay to student test scores and eliminate tenure as a direct assault on their profession. The Save Our Schools March & National Call to Action will be held July 28-31, 2011 in Washington, … Continue reading »
Recipe for depression
Saying nothing and keeping quiet is a great way to get along with and live with others, but it makes it hard to live with yourself. If you are looking for a recipe for depression, simply resign yourself to being an agent of your employer. Define your learning as something done to you by others. … Continue reading »
Heightened Control
Despite what conventional wisdom tells us, heightened control and demands for obedience are the worst responses to defiance. Where there’s no relationship, there’s no trust. Where there’s no trust, we resort to manipulation and dictates. Compliance and obedience become the name of the game, and for most kids this spells disaster.
Sample Testing
People who need something quantifiably simple and repeatable to judge how well schools are doing find test scores to be remarkably convenient. Test scores can then be used to fill colour coded spreadsheets that act as a carrot for the successful schools and a stick for the under-performing. The problem is that even the most … Continue reading »
Making Private Practice Private No More
Posted by Paula White ⋅ December 2, 2011 ⋅
In September, I wrote the following paragraph: TEDxLondon is going on today–I caught the info about it on Twitter–and I know I am the only person on my staff listening to any pieces or parts of it. I wonder why, though, as I know many of my teachers are on Facebook and use social media … Continue reading »
Posted by Paula White ⋅ November 29, 2011 ⋅
Sometimes a person says something, or you read something, that just resonates with you. I’m wondering if I began sharing with my staff the quotes I like or the sentences I read if it would cause any kind of change. Would others think about them? Would/could we have conversations about what they mean? Would there … Continue reading »
Posted by Paula White ⋅ November 26, 2011 ⋅
This blog’s been percolating for a bit…so the “today” I mention really happened in early November. I actually thought I had published this already, so thanks, David, for the nudge! Here goes… I’ve been having trouble blogging lately and I think I’ve figured out why. I think somehow, somewhere along the line, I began looking … Continue reading »
Real Education is Transformative
Posted by Paula White ⋅ November 3, 2011 ⋅
Got a tweet from my Sup’t today saying she was talking to one of my former iKids and Yarnspinners. You see, 12 years ago I taught in a school where I started two programs–one for kids to help each other (and teachers) use technology in more efficient and useful ways, and the other was for … Continue reading »
Posted by Paula White ⋅ September 11, 2011 ⋅
Tomorrow will be our 13th day of school and some routines and patterns of behaving are beginning to appear. My job is somewhat different this year in that I have been given responsibility for a fifth grade math group and other fifth grade support in addition to my job as Gifted Resource Teacher. (Our county … Continue reading »
Becoming a teacher isn’t as simple as going to college and taking the right courses. It isn’t as easy as standing up in front of a group of learners and saying the right things. It isn’t enough to know your subject and be passionate about it.
Becoming a teacher–one who make a difference in children’s lives–is a lifelong endeavor to be the best you can be, to understand yourself, to understand the people you are working with, to think and reflect and wonder and ask questions constantly, and to almost always work harder than any other friend you have in any other profession. Becoming a teacher is a lifelong endeavor to connect… to communicate… to encourage… to support… to challenge set ways of thinking… to scaffold learners to become smarter, more efficient and effective at learning in every way they can–while you, yourself, are doing the same.
I get a real kick out the best-of lists that pop up at the end of the year. Two years ago, the First Decade of the New Millennium had passed into ignominy, so there was a lot commentary on the establishment of the No Child era: What was the great cosmic takeaway for educators?
While there are always transformative events and legislation, most real change in education feels sluggish, rather random and exceedingly difficult to analyze. Education policy thinkers tend to be Covey-esque in the upbeat, step-wise way they approach change: anticipate, arrange, administer and assess. That’s how we got No Child Left Behind, which was supposed to be the Grand Strategy to identify inequities, raise and equalize standards (a word meaning different things to different stakeholders), harass teachers into somehow teaching better, and then test diligently to ensure accountability.
But– no plan on such a scale succeeds unquestionably. NCLB may have changed the tenor of the conversation, but the First Decade of No Child ended two years ago and we’re still considering why the results are proof that you can spend billions and not improve the worst education crises in any meaningful way.
I have been a teacher in four distinct decades, each with its own policy slogans, public perceptions and real problems. We’ve been “at a turning point” more times than I can count. We have surfed the rising tide of mediocrity and been embarrassed by the soft bigotry of our low expectations. But what has really changed in classrooms? What’s the net impact on actual practice?
My–admittedly ultra-personal and non-scientific–report on Four Decades of American Education: