MAC Wk 3 Blog 3

Sharon Jones posted a very poignant blog that I had to respond to this week. Her post can be found here and my comments are below:

Sharon,

You couldn't be more right.

In many ways, I think our country has lost its middle ground. And by that, I mean our space for debate, discussion, and compromise. We seemed to have moved from an era or place of discourse to a populace filled with rebuke and judgement.

I fall into this trap quite easily also. All to often, many conversations with friends and family alike end in my exclamation that, "well yeah, they are idiots!".

As our schools, communities, and country alike are faced with a myriad of challenges, sometimes administrations of all ilk are forced to make specific dogmatic or pragmatic decisions. Within these scenarios, many of us are left out of the decision making process.

For educators, I think being left out of the conversation is exceedingly difficult. The decision to teach is not one borne out of fiscal gain. We teach because we care. Correspondingly, I've found that teachers generally care about a whole host of issues throughout their institutions that they might not have any direct control or responsibility over. This reality only further frustrates those of us that my girlfriend Kelly refers to as "heart" people. It is these very situations that contribute to the "well if I were the boss…" perceptions.

However, Sharon, your closing observations are absolutely spot on. In order to avoid this constant circular behavior and frustration, we need to focus on the small but immensely valuable impact and change that we can create in the classroom every day. Once the bell rings, the room is only occupied by us, and our students. Those small changes, approaches to curricula, perspectives in lesson planning, and technology resources we leverage build upon themselves to create real and lasting impacts for our students.

We can make a difference even if we aren't the boss. Step by step, student by student. Innovative web stream by innovative web stream. Or at least student by student...