Land of the Luddites, Part 2

My new principal is tech savvy and he wants the staff to be as well. I'm all for it. It may take some of my coworkers some time to get used to it. When the principal toured our building during the interview process, he was taken aback by the number of chalkboards in the building. My building was built in 1990, so whiteboards were not prevalent at the time.

He's trying to make us as paperless as possible. I 100% agree with this. He does everything by email, which I find to be efficient. He has required staff to check their email at least 3 times a day. Some people are balking at this, they don't like being tethered to their laptops. However, if this is the only way you will learn about what is happening, you will have to adapt. The problem with my old principal was that she would communicate everything in two forms: email and a printout of the email that appeared in everyone's mailbox. It was redundant and didn't encourage people to check their email. I like this move because it's forcing me to be more efficient. I no longer create schedules in word and email them as attachments, now I just make appointments in Microsoft Outlook (what a novel concept). The funny thing is that I used to operate this way when I worked in an office years ago.

One bright note about technology: it's making printed text obsolete in the lives of our children. A fifth grade class in my building was looking at methods of reference. It was amazing watching the teacher try to explain certain types of books only to be met with blank stares and looks of bewilderment from her students. Items that elicited bewildered looks: encyclopedias, almanacs and phone books. It was especially funny to hear the students ask questions about phone books. "They print everyone's phone number in a book?" "What if your number changes?" "How do they know about your phone number?" It was also funny to hear the discussions about encyclopedias and almanacs. With the internet, how do you even describe what they are that makes them sound relevant? It made me realize how far we've come and it also made me feel old.

BBC

Issues in the Media

There have been a lot of relevant stories in the news. In today's New York Times, the chancellor of public schools in D.C. is resigning. Michelle Rhee is calling it quits. I didn't agree with her tactics, but it would have been interesting to see if they were effective. she battled the teachers' union. She abolished tenure and supported merit pay. With her absence, I'm not sure we will get a clear picture of the results of her efforts.

The recent story about the Rutgers student that committed suicide has everyone talking about digital media, social networking, and cyberbullying. My principal has been subtly pushing me to address bullying schoolwide. I think we have done a decent job of handling any bullying situations. My social worker went to a workshop that de-emphasized the use of the term "bullying". The rationale is that it can be vague and it often requires prolonged abuse. She proposed that we work on abolishing meanness. Even kids in kindergarten can identify something that's mean. They don't always understand bullying.

"Waiting for Superman" is taking the nation by storm. I haven't seen it yet, but I would like to. I'm not as defensive about the teaching profession as some of my colleagues. However, I do think that most people that bash teaching have no earthly idea what they are talking about. And they wouldn't last 5 minutes in front of a typical classroom.