“His work has moved classrooms across America from boring, uninteresting rooms filled with the drone of irrelevant information to beehives of interactivity!”
Did you not choose this quote from Sheryl R. Abshire to adorn your Keynotes and Workshops page?

Did you not then write an oversimplistic, finger-wagging blog post that castigates teachers for asking how your methods and suggestions will be implemented in REAL scenarios involving issues like time and money and district support? No excuses! Work harder!

Would your keynotes and workshops sell as well if your website advertising and blogging posed direct insult or cast suspicious and condemning question on district administrators who control such issues as time and money and support? They are, after all, the ones who purchase your services and wares, not teachers.

You have solutions? Ok. Do teachers,administrators, and businessmen like yourself want the same success for students and access to tech and curriculum and funds? Yes. But do you have to follow the march of so many educational motivational circuit-riders who so baldly belittle teachers so that they may enhance their own offerings?

Take down the quote I have mentioned and the blog post, and I will be satisfied that you have chosen to put respect for a teacher’s professional concerns and classroom communities above business.

Since you asked…22 years as a public school teacher, 3 years as a technology supervisor. Holder of still active English teacher, supervisor, principal and superintendent certifications in New Jersey. M.A. in Teaching. The experience in the classroom and working with teachers…priceless. The certificates and the M.A.? Pretty much useless.

I’m not suggesting the answers or fixes are easy. I’m just saying that if we think that having a device and regular Internet access is an important part of being a learner in 2010, we need to make that happen, not just accept not having it and use it as an excuse for not going there.

Of course, if you don’t think that, well I can think of lots of clearer, more meaningful ways to make that argument than the above.

And by the way, no amount of technology is going to save “boring, useless” classrooms, which, just to be clear, are your words, not mine.

The businessman in educational motivation (tech, curriculum, etc) says “Teacher, I have a solution to your problem!”

but sir, says the teacher, “There is a problem with your solution!”

The businessman says “I’m sorry, teacher, YOU will have to fix that!”

No, Mr. Educational Motivation Speaker/Writer/Philospher/Blogger, I do not have to fix that. I do not have to implement your solution. I do not have to correct my thinking to make your techniques work, and I will not be convinced by your certainty that your tech/curriculum/philosophies are best if I will just work harder at my job.

This is 2010. Districts have IT depts with professionals and caring teachers with credentials-I don’t see your credentials (educational/technical)posted on the website. Smug, simplistic blog posts from an educational businessman(along with the standard quote on book/website from an “expert” how the speaker/writers practices will save your obviously boring and useless classroom)only reinforce the fact that maybe teachers are questioning your solution because it is not a REAL one? Could it be? Maybe you need to think about working harder, educational motivational speaker/blogger/philosopher?

“My superintendent/principal/supervisor doesn’t have a vision for these types of changes.” Yeah, that stinks. So, how you gonna help her with that?”

“Her”?! “Her”?! There are a whole pile of male dominated managements out there, who have no IT vision, feel “too old” to deal with that stuff – yeah I know – How am I going to fix that? Well a lot of people are giving it a go, but an older woman with good IT skills is considered highly suspicious – she must be a witch!

I have used this video kind of tongue-in-cheek…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ScvAJG51V4

The Chicago Way…