Follow The Google-Bricked Road

Waking up in Kansas (Brooklyn) I found it a little bit easier to get to Oz than Dorothy did when she rode the skies in a cyclone.

Google offers gentler landings Over the Rainbow - though can still take you on a surprising journey.

Following my Google-Bricked road (Reader) through Education Land I wound up in a very stunning Emerald City.

With some ha ha ha's - ho ho ho's - and a couple 'a tra la la's - I merrily read the day away and found special delight in these Ruby Slippers...

A flashy video and well written article by Barnett Berry outline the ideas he and his team have published to help guide us in a good direction towards the future of education, technology and all :)

Pressures revolved around educational reform may be especially felt these days because of the need for fast change rather than thoughtful change.  The article, Teaching 2030,  seems to idealize the chance for teachers to not only have room to breath, but also have room to spread their wings to a point where we will see "blurring (of) lines between those who teach in schools and those who lead them."

Thank you for the recognition, Great and Powerful Oz.

Getting Declarative

I am a public school teacher.

I wake up before the sun and am probably in my office before you brew your morning coffee.

I didn't get into this by default or because spring, summer and the three o'clock hour offer freedom.

I didn't get into it because it's easy (it's not) or because it was the only thing to do.


I got into it for the kids, but realize I'm in it for the world.

I don't babysit... A 16 year old babysits - I do more.

I talk, I inspire, I enhance - I'm more than just one teacher, I'm more than just one job.

I flip through my roladex of skills and understandings with the speed of that businessman and then execute with the knowhow and precision of a surgeon; sewing up wounds in reading, mending bones in math, helping kids stand in new situations.

I experiment. Guess and check and guess and check to ensure I am finding ways to turn what I know into what they know.

I am on my tippy-toes longer than a ballerina, dancing with and around the pressures put on me and my students by this city.

I paint on canvases Van Gogh and Divinci never touched, swirling my paints into activities far away from chalkboards and boredom.



I still believe a kid can be a kid can be a kid can be a kid, especially in a classroom, even though others  have such a hard time believing it too.