Hopes and Fears for the 2012-13 School Year
I think this may be my favorite piece to write each year, but I can’t imagine I will ever be less able to capture my hopes and fears in words than I can now. Not since my first year teaching, and maybe not even then, have I started a year with such overwhelming feelings of excitement, apprehension, nervousness, anticipation, and helplessness.
Harvest is Now Real
Eight months ago I sat down for coffee with Kate and Atash, the principal and social worker of what was then “The Harvest School,” something that only existed in their dreams and on some paper. That evening, I became the first teacher to join the planning team. Paul, our science teacher, joined a few days later.
For eight months, the hopes and dreams have gotten bigger and bigger. Our team of dreamers has expanded
Harvest is Now Real
Eight months ago I sat down for coffee with Kate and Atash, the principal and social worker of what was then “The Harvest School,” something that only existed in their dreams and on some paper. That evening, I became the first teacher to join the planning team. Paul, our science teacher, joined a few days later.
For eight months, the hopes and dreams have gotten bigger and bigger. Our team of dreamers has expanded
Questions for the 2012-2013 School Year
Each of the past two years, I wrote a bunch of goals and reflected on them every two months in this space. I often found that as the year went on, I didn’t really care about the goals and reflected on them just because I said I would. I’m taking a different approach this year and writing myself a series of reflective questions I will return to every couple months. This will be my own personal inquiry project.
- How will I need to change the stance towards students and pedagogical practices I’ve developed the past years teaching upper classmen to be successful in teaching freshmen?
- How can I better focus on students’ thinking as opposed to the products of that thinking?
- How will I shift from not just developing teachers, but developing teacher-leaders for the future of our school?
Back in the Saddle
When I started blogging again over two years ago, I promised myself to never again write a “meta-blog” about why I am or am not writing. I’ll forgive myself this one.
I simply lost rhythm over the summer. It’s a good reminder that, for me at least, blogging is a good habit. Like so many good habits (exercise, healthy eating, maintaining relationships) it takes work to keep up, but is easy to break. Here’s hoping just forcing myself to sit and write was the hardest step, and I’ll be back in rhythm soon.
There’s a lot of stuff I meant to write about over the summer but never did, so in the interest of giving myself a clean slate to start the year with, I’m just going to share some small notes here.
I simply lost rhythm over the summer. It’s a good reminder that, for me at least, blogging is a good habit. Like so many good habits (exercise, healthy eating, maintaining relationships) it takes work to keep up, but is easy to break. Here’s hoping just forcing myself to sit and write was the hardest step, and I’ll be back in rhythm soon.
There’s a lot of stuff I meant to write about over the summer but never did, so in the interest of giving myself a clean slate to start the year with, I’m just going to share some small notes here.
- I had two wonderful PD experiences this summer. I learned a ton at the “Constitution 3.0” Gilder Lehrman