I mentioned in a faculty meeting that a white binder full of paper may not be the most authentic way for our students to share their achievements with their parents.

The next day I asked my students to share some ways that they could, more authentically, share their work for the year. One of my most wonderful students carefully explained to me that the reason we have the binders is to prepare students for job interviews. You know, when they go to an employer with their paper resume and samples of their paper work in a binder.

She was so enthusiastic about this “simulation of real life” that I hated to burst her bubble when I explained that I have gotten all of my jobs through my electronic presence - my blogs, my websites, etc.

I asked her: “if I just got my new job as a result of my professional blog demonstrating my skills, mind-set, and experience (and of course interviewing); how impressed do you think an employer will be when - 10 years from now - you show up with a binder?”

And the light-bulb goes on.

This post is so timely. It was exactly what I needed to hear as I start thinking about how to structure my new mathematics classroom… and I really mean new. It’s a new high school, well, an old building, but students, new concept, and exciting technologies, and I just can’t wait. I’m thinking about posting the self-… list in my classroom so that they understand that everything I do (ok, well, much of it at least) is to help them reach these goals.

As I’ve been lurking here for nearly three years now, I have been so jealous that I didn’t have a classroom of my own to try out these cool things you and others that contribute here get to experience. Really, this community is a part of why I’m going back. I want to belong and contribute to this world! I’ve learned so much here!

So, thanks for jumpstarting me!

Jenn

1. My daughter was tracked into the gifted math class and came home every night with a stack of gifted worksheets. Worksheets that took over two hours of family time each night. Instead of working outside, creating a project together, playing a game, or reading aloud,we did math. Math that was way over her head and totally disconnected to anything in the real world. Exasperated, I finally declared enough and told Sara I planned to meet with her teacher and request that this work be discontinued. Sara tearfully begged, “Please don’t Dad, Mrs. Teacher will put me in with all the dumb kids.”

2. At the Fall parent conference, my son’s second grade teacher started our conversation with an apology. “I’m sorry,” he sincerely said. “You see Matthew will clearly be able to pass the math section of the state test in the third grade, but I have a classroom of fifteen others who need a lot of work to get there. So, I will not be able to help your son move ahead with math until the Spring. You should consider working with him at home.” Honest teacher. Good person. Good teacher. My son loved his year in second grade.

3. When I spoke “off the record” one-on-one with our superintendent about my concerns, he said, “You have to understand. Our school is not just for you and your children. If you do not like what is happening here, you should leave, but we are not going to allow a single parent control our curriculum.”
—-
I pulled my children and weaned them from the love of certificates, trophies, and letter grades. Their new school did not make help them become digital learners, in fact they have had little exposure to technology the last five years. Their new school, however, helped them own their own learning and gain an understanding about what it means to learn. Sara returns to public school in August. She has not been marched through a list of state standards the past five years, nor has she been standardized by testing. I am confident, however, that she knows how to learn. That she loves learning. I can’t say that I can say the same for many of the incoming freshman where I teach.

Many of my colleagues think I sold out on public schools, but I stand firm in saying . . . my job as father is far more important that my job as a public school teacher. I didn’t have time to wait. Children don’t have time to wait for us to get our act together.

My decision helped me rest at night, but I still ache for the kids who don’t have the families that can help them get beyond the system.