Dennis Dill

Something like 25 years ago our neighbor used to work at Wal-Mart and they started the day off with a big Wal-Mart cheer (not sure if they still do that or not). I do not have the opportunity to walk around the class and shop while the kids are working and chat with them about whatever it is we want to talk about. From a teacher perspective, we can talk about the isolation, the missed conversation, the loss of collaboration time, but for me it is the loss of of unstructured random time with my colleagues. I do not even care how awesome you think you are or how long you have been teaching online … there are dynamics that happen in the classroom that are just pure magic that cannot be replicated online because they are not planned and they are not academic … they are authentic moments.

Everyday … across the world, millions of children are sent to school to be educated by highly qualified, well-intending people who end up adding a brick in the wall of that kid’s life. I am not saying these bricks are intentionally laid, but whether done intentionally or inadvertently because of a school policy, the kid will forever link that teacher to that brick in their wall. Take a moment and think about how many times you have walked down the halls and scolded a kid for running, but maybe that kid was going through something that day and your words struck them more harshly. … some will be named while others may be anonymous as we explore how bricks have been added to our wall and maybe through this process be able to talk about how we can go about removing bricks and also how to prevent laying bricks.

On Friday, we had a teacher workday and our Principal, Mr Sears, sent out a Twitter image for all the teachers to ponder and write a reflective response. It is in the best interest of accountability, but let us not travel down that road because that is a distraction from what I believe is the real point of this tweet from Principal Kafele and what my Principal wanted us to take away from this activity. However, the only burden the kid should have to bear is sitting and doing their best on the required tests NOT listening to their teachers’ stress about the tests … or even worse the berating from their teachers for not achieving the score that is needed to make “satisfactory progress”. When they have a special assembly that takes class time away from the kids who you think cannot afford to miss any more class time.

It is that time of year when it seems everyone is picking a word that will inspire them throughout the year. a positive thing … like going out playing a game … or … it” … like cleaning the cat litter box after after you changed brands of food. I think I need more of the Fu … Screw