education-revolution Digest, Vol 5, Issue 12

[Mark Greenberg]

On Thursday, July 28, 2005, at 08:34 PM, Judy Perry wrote:

> I didn't read that into your work; my curiosity was simply piqued by 
> the
> stimulus of new educational learning theories (e.g., stuff they didn't
> teach you in college but maybe should have!).

Ah, the things they didn't teach in college education courses:

Maintain a positive learning environment when...
• your new classroom is a converted storage area,
• the bookstore won't issue you textbooks because your room is not on 
the list of classrooms (see above),
• you're asked to disregard the fire alarms in the middle of student 
presentations,
• there's black mold growing in the ceiling tiles,
• Johnny's wasted and Jackie's pregnant (due the week before finals),
• the state test is more important than getting kids to think for 
themselves,
• the teachable moment is exploring why the word graffitied on your 
door is represents a shift in the historical gender reference of the 
word "bitch,"
• they bring the network server down for scheduled maintenance during 
fifth period,
• the principal is eating a tuna sandwich during your evaluation (in 
the classroom with kids just before lunch),
• subject-verb agreement is nowhere near as interesting as the fight 
before class,
• mom says your attendance records are wrong,
• you have to pee, but lunch is two more hours away,
• three years after the textbook purchase, the student books still 
creak when opened,
• the New York Times runs an article about your innovative teaching, 
but the local administration ignores the article,
• and admin has banned all video tapes from the classroom because some 
lazy teacher was showing "Little Mermaid."

Somehow I learned to keep smiling, teaching, and enjoying the kids 
anyway.  But a course in how to do that would be more valuable than all 
those classes on the theories of Skinner and Maslow.

		My 2¢,

			Mark  : )