Are you OWNING IT?
SEPTEMBER 11, 2013
Alex Kajitani (photo courtesy of Tom Torlakson’s office)
Today’s InterACT guest blog post comes from Alex Kajitani, California Teacher of the Year (2009) and ACT member. Alex is known to many as The Rappin’ Mathematician, and he has also written books for teachers. His first book was theThe Teacher of the Year Handbook – which has some good tips not only for Teachers of the Year, but also for any teachers who would find themselves in similar situations of public engagement and advocacy. Alex’s new book is Owning It, which expands the audience of his prior book and asserts that teachers must take charge of the profession through excellence in classrooms, schools, and the public sphere.
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There’s this myth in teaching. This myth that says you will struggle in your first few years but that, by your fourth or fifth year, you’ll be experienced, things will be easy and you’ll have your act together.
The truth is that while some years are better than others, teaching is hard every year. And every year, as teachers, we are asked to do more and more.
We live in a time of what some theorists call “accelerating change” — with technological, cultural, social and environmental change occurring exponentially faster than in any other period in