The doorbell rang. Three teachers, dressed in warm winter coats and holding bowls of food, awaited entrance.
“What did you bring?” asked Mr. Lawrence.
“Well, I made my green bean casserole. It’s my grandmother’s recipe,” Mamacita proudly stated. “Would you look at this rain? I was just blogging about the
weather. Somehow I didn’t picture this.”
The NYC Educator shuffled his feet. “Yeah, well, I never pictured that we’d get stuck with
a secretary who thinks a bit too highly of herself. I’d always heard that it was best to make friends with the office manager of any school since they run the place, but I thought it was just a euphemism. Looks like some of them take it to heart.”
"That must suck," said Mr. Lawrence.
The door opened. “Welcome!” said the Science Goddess and she smiled. “It’s been a long time since I’ve had you all over to my place. Looks like a great start to our potluck. Let me have your hats and coats. Have you met John Dewey and the Textbook Evaluator?”
The teachers looked over at John and Text. They appeared to be engaged in quite the discussion.
“You know,” said John, “I’m
not entirely convinced that constructivism is the way to go...especially in math.”
“I think you may be right. I was just looking at some current research. It
doesn’t seem entirely supportive of the model,” said Text.
Dr. P walked out of the kitchen with some crackers and a bit of dip on his tie. “Maybe we should be looking at the whole idea of ‘
highly qualified’ in math and science, too.”
“Or,” said the HUNBlog, “perhaps we should just take a
closer look at how we use constructivism. Inquiry should be appropriately guided.”
“Teachers—especially in the area of math—also need to be
strong in their content knowledge,” added NCLBlog.
“That gets back to my point,” Said Dr. P., as he wiped his tie.
More teachers came through the door.
“I have the pecan pie!” cried Margaret, the Poor Starving College Student. “Hang on just a sec...someone’s texting me.”
Ms. Cornelius rolled her eyes. “Did you see that New Zealand is actually going to allow kids to use
text message style writing for classroom pieces? What’s up with that? And where do I put the mashed potatoes?”
Margaret replied, “I don’t think I saw that. But hey, you can’t read kids’ handwriting these days, anyway. I just can’t figure out
whose job it is to make them write legibly: schools or parents?”
“Ugh. Cell phones,” said 3σ to the Left. “You should hear what all my principal and I had to deal with recently. This parent just couldn’t understand why the
school rules about cell phones should apply to his child. Why can't parents act like parents?”
“Don’t
parents get any of the burden for student achievement these days?” asked the Education Wonks. “We read that some schools are now closing the achievement gap, but are still wondering why the government makes the schools solely accountable.”
“I know,” said the Science Goddess. “I keep thinking about how to get parents involved in positive ways. They’re such an integral
part of the puzzle.”
Mister Teacher groaned. “Don’t get me started on parent issues. Have you seen the way they drive and park in school zones? It’s enough to give me
second hand road rage.” He walked toward the bar area.
DeHavilland got up to follow. “Schools can definitely see that there are achievement gaps. But instead of supporting them with the best instructional tools,
we give them a lot of rules and roadblocks. It just doesn’t make any sense.”
“Are you talking about tools like strategies for vocabulary development?” asked D-Ed Reckoning, walking the other way. “It seems to me that we have all kinds of ways to get kids to standard in many areas of education, but until we can c
onsistently help students develop vocabulary, we’re going to be in trouble.”
“Maybe we just need to
learn more about how to think outside the box,” said the Eides. “The problems in education aren’t going to be solved in traditional ways.”
The table was finally set. “Come on, everyone,” the Goddess called. “Soup’s on!”
“Is there assigned seating?” asked Mr. Lawrence, suspicion gleaming in his eyes. “You know, at this one school I sub at, the
kids choose to segregate themselves into separate lunchrooms. I’m not so sure that’s a good thing.”
“Probably not,” said Ryan from Edspresso. “But hey, some
people moved to the ‘burbs thinking that they would find a better school system for their children. That isn’t necessarily the case.”
“Which way’s the bathroom?” asked Mike.
“It’s down the hall,” said Alex, “but I think that Janet’s in there.”
“Figures,” sighed Mike. “And I’ll just bet that she
leaves the seat down. Again. I seem to be always surrounded by female co-workers. My kingdom for a men's room.”
Matt passed the marshmallow covered sweet potatoes to Alex. “So, what’s on your mind this week?”
“Well, I’ve been thinking that in light of the recent election results that there’s a good chance the
minimum wage might be boosted. That could be a good thing for schools. Maybe we should rally for it.”
“Very interesting,” said Scott. “Over at
Get on the Bus, I was just writing about a different reflection on the political process. I really think it’s
valuable to kids to involve them in discussions and let them see you vote.”
“I agree. Have you seen that
YouTube video with pre-schoolers and the election process?” said Just a Substitute Teacher. “Check it out when you get a chance.”
Discussion at the other end of the table was a bit different. “I’m so stoked! We’re going to take a
group of students to see Julius Caesar. I really have a love of the theater. Don’t you, Darren?”
“Oh, I love a good field trip as much as the next teacher. However, one of our own teachers went to DC to receive our school’s National Blue Ribbon Award. The
reception wasn’t anything to write home about, unfortunately.”
“We got to
go see a different reading program,” said the Median Sib. “I bet those teachers were relieved when the 20 of us departed for the day.”
Matt perked up. “Did you see anything that might
support the learning of gifted students? I notice that we don’t serve them well. Maybe they’d be better off classified as being legally disabled.”
Janet returned from the bathroom. “What did I miss?”
“Talk of field trips, students, and parents,” said the Goddess. You’re just in time to get in the last word before dessert.”
“I could use some chocolate. I finally had some resolution to the issues with the
class I told you about last week. Sometimes, you just have to focus your energies where they can do the most good.”
“Indeed,” sighed the Goddess. “Shall we retire to the livingroom for football and a tryptophan induced haze? Or would you prefer to check out the
Carnival of Teaching next door?"
“That sounds great,” said the Wonks. “And don’t forget, next week we’re hosting the Education Carnival! The deadline for submissions is: 8:00 PM (Eastern) 5:00 PM (Pacific) Tuesday, November 21st. Submissions may be sent to: owlshome [at] earthlink [dot] net . Contributers may also use Blog Carnival's
handy submission form. You can always check out the archives
here.”
Happy Thanksgiving!