What are you doing right now? What's on your list?

[Connie Weber]

Hi, Everyone. Busy enough?

This is a community check-in forum: please sketch out a list of your projects, activities, happenings (and mishaps!) of this current time, maybe what's going on from now until June. Come on--it'll be fun to see what everyone's doing.

What items are on your list right now? What fills your days? Is each day different from another, or are they the same? What's coming up shortly? What do you have to be done with by June? What are you really into? What are you dreading? What events are going on or upcoming?

[Connie Weber]

Hi Ken,
Young people come from about a 50-mile radius. It's a small camp, about 20 or 25 campers at a time, with three to five teenage or college kids who help run everything.
I love this work--yes, there's something special about the rural life... We note at camp how it takes most campers a couple days to settle in, get relaxed, start really "seeing" nature and animals. There's some kind of transformation they have to go through.

[Maria Fleyshgakker]

I am looking for a job, again.

In Russian they have a saying: "when a forest is being cut the wood chips are falling down."

Education reform is in a full swing in New York City, old schools are being closed, new schools are being open. They say that business model is used to reform education system.

I do understand the rational behind the closing schools. I do agree that some old schools that were set on their old ways of doing business should have been closed. I also agree with the fact that in the new schools often the middle and the high schools are united into one school 6-12. This step could bring specialists of high quality to teach middle school kids. In the past there were too many “vacancies” in the middle schools all over the city. Too many specialty teachers would choose to teach in a high school instead of training hormone-raging, unruly, puberty age kids. A “vacancy” meant a teacher with a general license would teach Math, or Science, or History. That was one of the reasons many of us felt that the system was failing.

When the business model is applied to schools, expenses become the most powerful argument. The fact that the principal can hire 2 new teachers in place of 1 old is the only thing that matters. The principal, not DOE, is responsible for the budget and the principal will save money. The students will survive. The numbers will vary and can always be explained or even used to close yet another school. But the money will be saved. Old teachers become ATR (Additional Teacher Reserve) when their schools are closed and the principals hire young and new. I do agree that we have to give young and new teachers a job. We all were young and new at some time. Many of us became really good teachers. I even agree that some tenures maybe too comfortable in their position so they do not put enough effort to change and adjust to the new millennium challenges.

I do not think I can agree with the business model. The old business model which is being applied to reform schools is a failing one. We can see what it did to our economy. The old business model only values money. Profit, profit, profit. Nobody’s bothered enough to ask how you came up with this profit. Nobody’s bothered enough to say: I refuse to accept this bloody money. Nobody’s asked how are you going to take care of the young, old, weak, or sick. We all are trying to fix this failed model. Some want to let it fall hoping that a new one will just grow out of the ruins. Some hope to reform the old one and make it better. Some want to become independent from any model. How come that the new reform for the education system which is going to bring up our next generation of citizens is proud to be build on this old and failed business model?

I worked in 2 great schools. I always knew that we really served our students and made a difference. We had great, dedicated teachers. We had special services for underprivileged families. The first school served pregnant teens in the South Bronx; it was a place that changed lives of so many to so much better and it was closed because of the money matters. The second school has been on phasing out mode for 4 years. This school is absolutely great, small, caring, and very lively. They got on the phasing out mode because it had been a portfolio assessment school for years, the students were not being prepared for the Regents Exams, so the first year they took the exams the scores were not so good. It does not matter that all our students have been passing Regents since then, getting Advanced and Regents Diploma, we have not been taken off the phasing out mode. We became just “a wood chip” in the process of “forest cutting” citywide school reform.

I too became one of those “wood chips” that has to fall down. I am looking for a job for the next year. This is a second time I am looking for a job in 2 years and in spite of the fact that I am an experienced 22 years of satisfactory service tenure there is no guaranty that I’ll find one. Right opposite because I am so old and expensive the principals do not want me.

Don’t worry about me; I’ll be fine :) :) :) It’s just a thought and a mood.
Mercury is in retrograde :)

[Connie Weber]

Maria,

We need to hear a whole lot about what you're learning by being on the ground (in the field) during this reform movement in New York City. I know I would be fascinated to hear every detail, and I'm sure others would as well. I hope you blog about it regularly, and also start up some forums about issues near-at-hand.

Hey, have you had time to check out AfterEd, the videos on the center of the main page here at Fireside? That's originating out of New York, the Teacher's College. Would love to hear your reactions to those productions. I've been enjoying them immensely.

Good luck! May you find the perfect learning-habitat for using your extensive talents as a teacher. Keep us informed about the job hunt.

So good to hear from you!

[Tashonda]

At the end of April I graduated from GVSU with my BA in English. I minored in elementary education.

This month I am applying to schools for a teaching position.

This June, I’m moving to Arizona.

If you know of any schools hiring in Arizona, send me a message! :) Please and thank you.

[Connie Weber]

Tashonda! So good to hear news from you. I hope AZ has a great place for you as you begin your teaching career. I also hope you'll be regularly coming to Fireside. Please give us some ideas for our Fireside mentoring program for student teachers and new teachers. Good luck with the job hunt--keep in touch!

[Paddy O'Dea]

Hello,
This is just my quick note to say thanks, so far, for some pretty helpful items I've discovered at Fireside. Jennifer Lubke's very useful mentoring tool document will be useful to me. Also, I'm very interested in the mystery of motivation and do know something about it, having witnessed astounding things happen with children and young people through after-school programmes! And thanks for some of the TED talks I hadn't caught up with!

I'm very new to this social networking malarky, which is great fun - but, I realise, does require me to pay attention. So I hope people will be patient with me if I ask what seem like daft questions sometimes.

What's on my list right now? Survival is at the top, actually. I've just been made redundant, but have applied for a job as the manager of a social networking site called the Learning Exchange. I won't know for a while - they tell me they'll be offering the job on 18 May. It's hard to put it out of my mind until then, but probably best not to get too wild about things until I know. The site isn't up and running yet, and I realise I've heaps to learn about making it tick well. So anything the good folk on this site can teach me I'd be glad to learn!

There are so many excellent features on this site so I hope you won't mind if I borrow the concepts and adapt them (if I'm appointed to the position!)

Apart from waiting to hear about the job, I'm continuing to finish producing the last issue of the magazine I have edited for three years - and editing other material - and trying to catch some sun, and spending time with visiting Kiwi friends who are in London for a bit of time out from their hushed lives in the South Pacific!

Connie, this community check-in forum is a really excellent idea - not just to find out and engage with what everyone's up to, but I guess it's a great way to find out how many souls have been warming themselves by the Fireside, so to speak!

For now, kia kaha - which is 'keep growing strong, stand tall, keep on going - in Maori, the language of Aotearoa New Zealand.
:-)

[Ken Messersmith]

Paddy,
I enjoyed reading about your current activities and loved learning the new phrase in Maori. That is a good motto for all of us. Thanks for sharing.

[Connie Weber]

Paddy,

Thank you so very much for your news and thoughts.

I, too, found Jennifer Lubke's article very informative and useful.

Regarding networking, no question can be daft--not at all. I owe a great debt to Steve Hargadon and the site Classroom 2.0 for bringing me through my initial learning phase, and want to pay that back by helping others come into the new world of online professional communities. So, ask away! At your service. I'd rather someone asks a whole lot of questions and just tries stuff that sits and "lurks" and wonders how to get going. I'm so glad to have you "just doing it"--and I'm sure you're inspiring others by doing so.

Any way we, on Fireside, can help you with the Learning Exchange (you'd better get that job--they need you!), just let us know. Let's just keep the communication going strong.

You'll be helping with the Fireside mentoring program that we're piloting in the fall, won't you? Oh please!

Yes: keep growing strong, stand tall, keep on going!
Thanks--

[Bill Pearsall]

Hello all - I've never been asked what is on my list before and am a bit unsure how to answer - I've read the other replies and ya'll lead remarkable lives - I have been teaching 11 years and will use this coming summer to somehow compile what I've learned so far - I've been fortunate to have been around very learned people, to have been involved with Project Zero a couple of summers, and to be exposed to a number of influential books over these 11 years - this is on top of the experience of being with my students - now it seems like a lot of ideas are coming together and I want to get them recorded - I don't know what the outcome will be but I am excited by the idea of bringing the thoughts together - that is my summer, along with plans for a couple of trips with my wife and grandchildren and some gardening

Bill

[Connie Weber]

Hi Bill,

Sounds wonderful! I encourage you to share your thoughts here on Fireside. Spread the wealth... Looking forward to hearing how the ideas are coming together--looking forward to hearing what you're thinking about.

Hey, an additional idea: maybe you'd like to be matched up with an incoming teacher for a mentoring partnership. I'm hoping to get a Fireside mentoring program launched in the fall. Might you be interested in being a mentor?

[Beth]

I am sitting in a hotel room in Reno, NV waiting for the crazy day to begin. I am at ISEF with a student, parent and members of a team from another local county. It is a great experience! I love it!

When I return we will begin our week of standardized testing. Then we have just two more weeks until school is out. Then I will begin my summer of learning. I have four sessions to attend this summer for PD.

Beth

[Ana Balboa-Guenthner aka: Ingrid Hartmann]

More project-based at the moment:

1. Dissertation proposal- merging old and new literacies.
2. International collaborative project on new media literacies with the Philippines..planning stage.
3. Enticing the head of the Southeast Asian Minister of Education (SEAMEO) for an Asia/Pacific affiliation with ISTE. (Sigh, must always be aware of diversity in work culture).
4. Merging of broadcasting, content and curriculum, and online media on marine-biodiversity for youth.
5. Thinking: Should I teach this summer?
6. Bed side readings: The Zohar and "Children of the Land, Adversity and Success in Rural America" by Elder and Conger.

Now off to being a mom.