Free Thinking Teacher

Welcome to Free Thinking Teacher!  With the myriad of chatter out there in the cybersphere, this is yet another source.  I'll focus primarily on the world of education and #eduspeak, with some dabbling in politics and current events. My purpose is to elicit discussion through podcasts, blog posts, and tweets.  Many of my thoughts will not conform to the norms of many education professionals.  By sharing them, I hope to get people thinking for themselves, not to sway an opinion to be in agreement with my own.  There is a genuine fear that teachers as a whole are so ingrained with one doctrine that the part of the reason that the practice of education is failing. As the tagline states, I will provide "a candid look at the educational world from the mind of a veteran teacher who doesn't toe the line." Expect some controversial ideas mixed in with some humor and debate. These opinions are my own, but you're welcome to borrow them.  Check out...

This topic is a hot button issue for me.  Yes I experienced student loans for a good chunk of my life, but that’s not what pisses me off.  It’s the ignorance and shortsighted people who claim the government can solve the crisis by magically forgiving loans.   Their moronic solution can be refuted by two simple concepts, economics and education. Firstly, look at a student loan for what it is.  It’s simply a service provided to someone seeking it.  No one is forced to have a student loan, it’s a product.  Imagine buying a car, probably financed, driving it for years until it is no longer able to function, then demanding to not pay for it.  That’s a loose analogy but not awful.  The new crop of college grads aren’t happy that they have to pay for an education that was already delivered.  What’s worse is they want big daddy government to swoop in and make it better.  Life doesn’t work that way.    Bringing back the ca...

In the world of teachers not practicing what they preach comes the inability to make an argument. This is prevalent now in the mindless bashing of the president. For the record, I am not defending him but rather defending a basic tenet of teaching. Many teachers fail to make an argument like an adult and support it. In order to prove my point, and support it, here are a few tweets which I will analyze. The name calling and childish comments express the writer’s opinion quite well. However, it begs the question why do you feel this way. I have a strong suspicion they’d have trouble articulating that without devolving back into insults. As a teacher imagine this scenario. A student is asked to write a persuasive essay, paragraph, sentence, etc. about why they think homework should be banned. They turn in, “Homework is dumb and should be banned. Teachers who give homework suck.” Could you honestly assess that student as having made a persuasive argument? I understand that ven...

Previously on Free Thinking Teacher... Most teachers DON’T need... •more advice •forced training •extra tasks However, they DO need... •SUPPORT (every kind!) •Lower class sizes •FAIR WAGES •Quality PD •To be treated like a professional •Less standardized testing •More prep time #EdChat  👍 — Fixing Education (@FixingEducation)  January 15, 2020 I touched on the first part of this tweet in the prior post, in case you missed it.  For this one I’m tackling the final four items listed. Of course, all professional development should be quality PD.  The issue isn’t just quality, it’s also quantity.  It seems like a constant cycle of development with the concept of the month being regurgitated to the masses.  Perhaps school districts, and the PD gurus they hire could focus more intently on one area and deliver meaningful content teachers would benefit. Professionalism is a two-way street.  Teachers definitely are professionals and deserve...

This Tweet is the impetus for this post, although it's not hard to find similar postings out there. Most teachers DON’T need... •more advice •forced training •extra tasks However, they DO need... •SUPPORT (every kind!) •Lower class sizes •FAIR WAGES •Quality PD •To be treated like a professional •Less standardized testing •More prep time #EdChat 👍 — Fixing Education (@FixingEducation) January 15, 2020 The first part of this Tweet is dead on.  Many professionals don’t need the influx of advice, training, and tasks that are foisted upon them.    It’s the needs that I want to address, I’ll do a few here and few on a future post to keep the length manageable. Support is a no-brainer.  Classrooms don’t exist in a vacuum. There needs to be competent, dedicated people who want to support the classroom and not just check the boxes.  At the risk of overgeneralizing, many support staff and admins are not effective.  This is either by their own la...

Moreso in personal interaction than social media posts, I come across teachers who raise the question in my mind, “do you really want to teach?”  This observation can be broken down into a few key aspects. They don’t seem to like kids Never smile at school Can’t hold a conversation without complaining The first item on the list being most glaring.  Whether you teach the littles or the big smelly high schoolers, you need to like kids.  Imagine if a dog groomer opened a shop and then openly professed they hate dogs.  It’s that serious.  A teacher who can’t relate to kids by having a conversation, sharing a joke, or enjoying their students has no business in a classroom.  Those who are permanently burdened with resting bitch face, may be excluded from number two.  However, there are those who teachers who just managed a smile while at school.  We all have bad days, crabby moods, and/or an emotional funk.  But we all have to remember th...