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Education

This tag is associated with 154 posts

Drowning as an Educator or Finding the Surface

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Originally and reluctantly posted at educatedtodeath.com Over the past few weeks I’ve struggled with my problem with top down models of education. I attempted to allow the thought “this is for the greater good” into my mind. I tried to hold it in my mind and make it fit. It only made me sick the … Continue reading »

How can they know?

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How can they know, how hard the burden? How can they know, how heavy the load? Struggle finds a strong heart and tears, rivers of love and silence binds us all. ~ Susan Herrick How can they know? That question has been an ongoing refrain in my head for some time now. Who are they? … Continue reading »

Why I don’t “just find another job”

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Originally posted at educatedtodeath.com I have a bit of venom toward the system that employs me. It has been suggested that “if [I] don’t like it, then leave.” That suggestion discounts my reasons for staying, and indicates that I’m concerned namely with/for my own well-being. I can see how an outsider might see it that … Continue reading »

I’m a good teacher now that I’ve swallowed the pill?

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Originally posted at educatedtodeath.com I’m a good teacher now. I covered my walls with posters, and motivational phrases as I was told. I put colorful paper on my door so evaluators could tell I care about my students. I even put up the competitive sticker chart so my students can compete for the highest grade. … Continue reading »

I’m almost too tired to voice my dissent.

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Originally posted at educatedtodeath.com I’ve been quieter this year, more subdued. I’ve felt guilty. Today, I failed to attend a meeting that could have served as an opportunity to work for the better, or fight the worse. I can barely find time to write. My posts are fewer, and my involvement in social media is … Continue reading »

Swallowing the Pill: It’s good because I was told

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Originally posted at educatedtodeath.com It’s sad to see educators so committed to their prescribed “job” that the question, “Am I really doing what I should be doing?” becomes impossible to ask. Unquestioning subservience is an easy trap. It’s required to an extent. If teachers are to hold onto their jobs, they must, at least, pay … Continue reading »

Collaborate, but collaborate better than thy neighbor(?).

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Originally posted at educatedtodeath.com We’ve had several meetings this year that have all had a similar message: “create a competitive environment in your classroom to motive your students”. We are told that they respond well to competition. They should always strive to do better than their neighbor. We are also expected to tell them that … Continue reading »

Learned Humanity

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While in DC a couple of weeks ago for the Bammy Awards I had the chance to tour the Holocaust Museum with a few colleagues. It was powerful, moving, and saddening. I left convinced more than ever that what we do matters, and matters mightily. Wandering the beautifully and hauntingly constructed museum, the visceral taste of … Continue reading »

Dichotomy of Co-Intentional Teaching and Our Current Education System

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Last week I attended a national conference on theatre education.  It was an illuminating and frustrating experience.  And this fall, I started attending graduate school in applied theatre at CUNY in New York, where I am participating in a wonderfully illuminating course, Group Theatre.  Part of the ongoing dialogue and work in Group Theatre has … Continue reading »

Sneaky Evaluators: Who Sent You, and Why are You Disrupting My Class?

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Originally posted at educatedtodeath.com There is a constant stream of evaluators and academic “coaches” streaming through the classrooms at my school. They come in driving unreasonably nice cars, and always look like they just came from a designer boutique and then a full service salon. They look like blooming movie star hopefuls or just well … Continue reading »

Mentorship in Democratic Learning Environments

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This morning I sat in on a meeting to discuss the beginning of this years mentor program at The Free School. Sixteen students from grades 5 through 8 are eligible to take a younger student as their mentee for the year. I can recall the various mentoring I’ve participated in from high school through college. … Continue reading »

Beginnings at the Albany Free School

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For the 2012 -2013 year, I will be an intern at the Albany Free School.  I found out about the Free School through AERO, the Alternative Education Resource Organization, back in the days when I first began learning about democratic schools. I decided to join their internship program as my own form of alternative learning. … Continue reading »

I Am A Student, and I Stand Against Students For Education Reform (SFER)

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Originally Published at Teacher Under Construction “Empowering students to advocate for change.” It’s as if this organization was made just for me–just read my headline! If you take a few seconds to search around my blog documenting my vision, my involvement with students through mentoring and being a teachers assistant, my aspiration to be a future teacher, and restless … Continue reading »

Student Slams Ex-CNN Anchor, Union President, and Students First

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This piece was originally published on StuVoice.org. Are you a supporter of sexual predators? We can all agree that that is a ridiculous question to ask, yet, former journalist Campbell Brown did just that in her Wall Street Journal opinion piece titled, “Teachers Unions Go to Bat for Sexual Predators.” It gets worse. A Twitter … Continue reading »

Teaching: Art or Science?

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It was posited to me recently that an internal professional development system for teachers designed to foster discussion about teaching and learning fits within the “teaching-as-intellectual-pursuit” model (“science” for short here), as opposed to the “teaching as art” model. To this person’s credit, this suggestion was more a musing than a statement of fact, but … Continue reading »

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