Ending up

The year has finally ended and this has been the hardest of my career to date. I do realize that it will likely not remain that way forever. I made it and the teachers in the trenches seem to have made it as well. As we go forward, at least in the state of Texas, we have new standards to process as well as new TEKS in some of our core areas. I look forward to the summer with friends and family. This is my time to refill my proverbial cup and I'm excited about it. In a couple of weeks a friend and I will be traveling to Florida for a workshop with English teachers. We already have plans for things we'd like to plan while on our road trip - among those plans we want to write some new songs for the classroom. In the fall I will begin my doctoral degree in Reading and I am very excited. I hope to one day become a professor and teach the next generation of teachers. The best way for a novice teacher to learn, aside from being thrust into the classroom, is to learn from other teachers. The way I figure it, if I can teach at least five novice teachers to teach in the way I know it should be done then I've reached hundreds more students than I ever could on my own. For the summer, refill your cup but also read and learn. If we stop learning then we ultimately stop teaching. New things and ways in the classroom are not evil - they are required to keep our students engaged and help them to learn and retain. If you have not yet seen "Waiting for Superman", rent it now! Enjoy the summer and I hope to post more regularly when school begins again.