Free Thinking Teacher

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...

If you’re close to my age then you think back to the TV show starring Tony Danza by the same name as this post.  That show represented a lighthearted look at the topic I’m about to share.  The employee hierarchy of a school should be relatively simple with the principal, and APs if they exist, at the top.  The principal is the building administrator, the boss as it were.  In many schools it seems like that is not the case.  Several teachers seem to not understand, or choose to ignore, the superior/subordinate dynamic. Practically no where in the working world, private or public sector, are there bosses who are in complete agreement with their subordinates and vice versa.  Only in education do the workers regularly disrespect, shout down and bad mouth their superiors with little to no repercussion.  Part of this is to blame on the self-esteem movement of the past few decades, but more so on the union-based mentality that the boss is the bad guy. ...

Teachers have a plethora of skills they bring to their classroom.  Some have the gift of creating great visual aids, others breathe tech, while some can create outstanding lessons out of the smallest of ideas.  Within that collaboration comes some fantastic instruction! Whether you open an account on Teachers Pay Teachers, give out flash drives at team meetings, or some other means of sharing files, just share.  Teaching is a profession that relies on creating content and thinking outside the teacher’s edition.  All teachers exclaim how they want to improve education, then share your resources, share your knowledge, and most of all share your skills. While this all seems obvious, I think the means to share aren’t as obvious as one might think.  Within your school set up a lesson swapping party.  Most of you know a colleague who sells candles, kitchenware, or totes via a “party.”  Why not one for sharing your gift of teaching?  For sharing outs...