Reasons why I avoid the lunch room

Ok - so I ventured into the faculty lounge and BAM it hit me AGAIN! So, a little background on me - I was not a very good student in MS or HS. I know it is hard to believe since I am such a geek now, but I was a C/D student. ANYWHO - I am a firm believer that I did not have teachers who taught using multiple intelligences. Atleast I have a better understanding why they did not teach that way. Considering through my undergrad I realized that education has not been studied for very long. HENCE the need for CHANGE in the way we teach - yes I said it CHANGE.... I know it is a dirty word but GIVE IT UP! I struggled through school my WHOLE life and it took alot of failures for me to figure out how to succeed. I think that now we are expected to do alot more to help students succeed, AWESOME! So I say GRRR to those teachers who do not want to change or work harder. Am I alonng with this?

Use trash in school

When I was in high school I was on the fore front of making reycling mainstream, soon it took off and now people expect it. Now I think that we can use recyclable materials in school to teach creativity.

On Treehugger TV they have a couple videos that show how an interior designer used recycled materials to create a modern eclectic space that is eco-friendly.

Currently in one of my 7th grade classes we are making board games out of recycled materials that serve as an educational tool on earthday. I am hoping in the process the students learn a little about the environment while learning to creatively think about "trash". We'll see.

The House

This is our soon to be house...



This is a walkable bar, in downtown Shorewood (we are Whitefish Bay but 3 houses from Shorewood) The Brit Inn!!

A couple shots of the inside of the house

The exiting months to come!

Ok, so we are going on vacation over "spring break" to the carribean! WOOHOO! And we are planning to spend a ton of time at Jimmy Buffet's margarittaville in Ochos Rios.

After we get back, we will start remodeling our new house by the end of April - we hope. We are exiting to get out of the apartment, I mean we can hear EVERYTHING they do upstairs! grrrr!

I am getting into bloggin because we are talking alot about it in my current masters class, yeah I am on my 4th class already since starting in August. Time flies! If you can imagine this I am going to be even more geeky by the end of the year!

Joe took the bike out the other day on the 70degree day, which reminds me I have to get a bike too!! It won't be a Harley but that is a goal someday.

See YA!

Do we live up to our own expectations?

After reading The Coming of Age article Peter Ford said something so simple that made me more irritated with "stuck in the past" teachers. He said "practice what we preach", how many times have we (adults in general) said this? Well, as teachers we ask students to learn something new everyday, retain it, apply it and remember it for all the classes to follow. On the other hand, many teachers teach the same static content - how much is history going to change? or mathematics? Science theories? Grammar? If the content is rarely changing - why be resisitant to new ways of teaching it? Atleast, I have come across many teachers resistant to change their teaching methods. I mean, how long have we been looking at teaching methods and there effectiveness? I don't think it has been that long, although I have not been able to find the supporting material for this (I remember it from my undergrad).

So I digress, as adults, people, teachers we need to model to the youth how to problem solve by doing ourselves. I am suggesting that we need to learn new ways to teach the static material - or look into how that static material is changing and being affected by technology.

For example, I tried something in my class that I had never done before - so I told the students that and we read the directions together and our first try did not work, we failed, we reflected and tried again - we were successful! Many teachers are affraid to fail in from of the students, I found they saw me as human and able to make mistakes. I am hoping they see that making mistakes is just a way of learning - if you take advantage of the learning moment.

Are you sure you are meant to be a teacher?

SO - I started out the "real world" in a large consulting firm, where I had 3 careers. I had an epiphany and decided to get into something that I felt that I was giving back, which led me to education. Once I got to education I am amazed how many ineffective teachers there are. Why in most industries do people leave when they realize that they are not enjoying or are good at what they do. Hmm... I have pondered this and I think it is all about the pension. So I am still wondering how ineffective teachers keep their jobs - I mean, if you are not good at your job why do you get to keep your job? I am new, still learning.