Open Set

I have a lot to say about my job. Mostly, I say it to my husband. He’s a really good sport about it, but really, it’s time to start putting it into writing more often, and see where these ideas can take me.

I had a blog back in the summer of 2019. Looking back, it’s interesting to see what has changed and what has not in my thinking. I had a lot of similar ideas, I don’t think my ideas themselves have changed much. But my focus is totally different. At the time, I was working at a school for gifted kids. My focus was on gifted education, and how to make things really great for a small group of kids. For the past three years, I have been working at public urban schools. Now my focus is much more on how to manage large systems, how to reach kids who are mostly checked out.

There was always a part of me that knew that my blog could only go so far while I was teaching in private schools. Even though I knew that I was doing the real work of teaching; even though I knew that kids are kids and teaching is teaching; even though I was facing big challenges and finding creative, meaningful solutions — despite all that, it was also true that I was looking at a particular type of problem, and these problems were not the most common among American teachers. So, I was hesitant to write. Now, working at an urban school with all the common public school problems, I think that I am ready to share with the world.

Ironically, teaching for 20 years in private schools was probably the best teacher education I could possibly have asked for. The problems I faced there were conquerable. The kids would not jump in necessarily, but they were willing participants if you were able to hook them. The kids who struggled usually were missing some background knowledge, but they were not 5 years behind their peers. It was possible to find ways to teach everyone in the room, and I was very much expected to do so. So I found ways to do it. I asked for help, I sought out PD workshops and programs, I kept at it until I figured out how to make my class better. And I think I have a lot of knowledge and ideas that can help in these larger environments. I wonder if I would have done the same had I started at a large public high school, where there is more apathy and a wider range of student needs. I wonder if I would have pushed so hard to find real solutions. Who knows? I can’t go back and restart my education in education. But here we are, and I feel like I have something to offer.

And now, on with the show!