The Fourth Way

'Stopping to think, gather others' opinions and making midcourse adjustments are viewed as reprehensible failures...'

I have to admit, I do this a lot. I will have a plan for a lesson and wonder if there is a better way to do it, talk to a collegue and change courses. I am new at teaching the subjects I am teaching so I am learning what works best as I go. When teachers are implementing new technology there are going to be times when you have to stop, think and talk to others about the best way to implement it. I do believe some teacher and administrators could view this as a failure so people become afraid of change.

'Got cancer? Had a baby? Lost your dad? Took on a difficult student? Risked making a big change to learn how to teach a new cirriculum? Congrats-- We'll pay you less! And no complaining, because we've got a new data driven decision making system backing us up!' 

Clearly the author is trying to give his reader a strong reaction and if you are trying to implement new technology, you are going to be very apprehensive if you are up against this.

After working in a variety of different fields related to sales (what isn't, really?), I often felt that teachers should be paid, hired and fired based on performance and merit and not based primarity on seniority. People are constantly complaining about 'bad' teachers who never are let go because of their seniority. I also know, life isn't a track meet- it's a marathon. After working just a short time longer in the teaching profession, I know high people have high expectations of teachers. And I know I have high expectations of myself as a teacher. Putting forth extraordinary effort over long periods of time with no pay-out can make you (me!) feel like you're about to crash and burn. But if teachers were paid for their extra ordinary teaching skills (like salespeople make commissions or other professionals are given bonuses for their output), they could likely sustain a much greater effort.

'The distraction of the Path of Effervescence are appealing and entertaining.'

This section kind of makes me laugh because it reminds me of something a WV Career and Technical Education (CTE) leader said about CTE classes. I did not realize initially that if you teach CTE classes (i.e. Welding, Carpentry, Game Design, ProStart Culinary, Accounting, etc.) your program depends on how many students take your classes. If students don't like you or your classes, you have a good chance of losing your job. This can be tricky if you really want to prepare high school students for a career in that field- it may not be a 'fluff class'. If may be challenging for them. It may not be an easy A. You are not like a math teacher- every student has to take math. So, this state leader said they were working on revamping program names to make them sound 'sexy' so students would take them. I don't know how I feel about that.

'Too often, schools and school systems use data and research evidence much less intellegently and flexibly than this. For instance, they... prioritize increased state test scores above everything else. This is true even when the resulting test preparation leads to declines in the more sophisticated performances and achievements required by college entrance exams."

This quote is just sad!

This is a screenshot of me I took while being interviewed by WBOY news station for an Hour of Code workshop I arranged for Computer Science Education week. I invited Midland Elementary School 5th grade students to learn about coding from my Game Design I students. It was a success!