Essential Learning

It's difficult to believe that it is January 3, 2015 or that it has been almost two months since I last blogged. Eek.  Adding blog more to my career goals!  So what have I been doing in those two months... other than unsuccessfully writing the introduction of my dissertation proposal?  Maybe a better question to ask is what haven't I done in those two months?

In all honesty, I haven't done what I love the most: plan creative, authentic, and meaningful lessons.  I've been hanging on, and that is the worst thing a teacher can do.  Anyone who knows me, knows that teaching has always been my passion.  Except lately, it isn't.  Not because I don't love my students, writing, or literature.  I do. But I hate Acuity, the ECA, standardized assessments, and all that other crap.  I also hate how much I've pretended to play the game this year.  I've been a dutiful department head, a pretty good teacher, and have tried to believe that all those standardized tests mean something to me.  But they don't and pretending that they do is a lie, and it is destroying me as a teacher.

Wow, it felt good to say that out loud.  The truth is supposed to set you free, right?  Here's  what else is true: using an Acuity assessment to determine whether I'm a highly effective teacher or not is criminal. It also infuriates me.  You know why?  Because if value is placed almost entirely on standardized tests, then your focus is almost entirely on standardized tests.  It isn't on essential questions, statements of enduring understandings, universal themes, project based learning, culminating projects, service learning, your students' voices or anything else that makes teaching absolutely amazing. I want absolute amazing and my students deserve absolute amazing.

So here's my New Year's resolution: find my identity as a teacher again.