Reflections of an Educator

As I was shoveling snow onto the eight-foot-high pile in front of my house during my fourth snow day, I considered the fact that we had lost an entire day of school and educational momentum, and wondered: should that also mean we lose an entire day of learning ?   The in-again-out-again lack of routine for everyone - students, teachers and parents alike - is certainly detrimental to maximum student learning, but what can we do?  Mother Nature has another plan!  But what if snow was no longer a reason for learning to stop?  Physical schools are important, yes - but when we cannot get in there (be it snow, rain, travel, vacation, or something else), what if  getting into the physical school building was eliminated as a hurdle to learning?  What would that look like?  What if... Students were expected to think deeply every day (even on snow days!) Technology eliminated the snow day hurdle Students were engaged in authentic, project-based learning ...

As an educator, I have dealt with sad moments in my career, with the death of students with whom I spent time.  As Cicero said, "Nosce te ipsum," and boy, do I know myself: the death of a child is likely the saddest thing that I've ever had to experience, and hope to never again.  What truly gets me: the loss of potential of a child. I needed to put my current blog post on hold, to stop and think about the  loss of Christina Taylor Greene .  I never knew this nine year old, but her death has hit me like a ton of bricks.  This young lady was a victim of the Tucson, Arizona shooting at Representative Gabrielle Giffords's community meeting.  Her potential was simply incredible: the only girl on a baseball team, an aspiring politician, a dancer, a gymnast, a swimmer, a musician, a volunteer.  All of this potential: lost, in a single moment, and it simply devastates me to the core. No one can reverse the insanity that occurred yesterday in Tucson, A...

I was excited to learn of Tagxedo , a word cloud creator.  I submitted my blog's address, knowing that I was making myself vulnerable as to what would be most prominent...I was thrilled to see the biggest word in my blog's cloud: students .  Woo hoo!