WELCOME TO “ONE FOOT IN REALITY”

WELCOME TO MY NEW BLOG – “ONE FOOT IN REALITY”.

I have thought about doing this for a couple of weeks, I wasn’t happy where I was previously and this seems like the perfect time to start a new blog.  School starts next Thursday and it is when MOST Teachers and Students are both anticipating the start of school, so it seems as though is the right time to start a new blog. A new school year – a new blog.

This time I am not simply switching blog hosts and transferring all my posts to the new blog, I am going to start over completely.   So “One Foot in Reality” has been created.

But why “One Foot in Reality” as the name of the blog?

I believe that sometimes we get so preoccupied with how the public, politicians, media or ourselves talk or write about things, that we and those that are writing and talking about education forget the reality of what is actually going on.  How we or others may want things to be, does not always mean it will be or should be that way.  I know that I get caught up in that trap as well.

There are many things we can not change immediately or locally and that we have to do or acknowledge in our classrooms in today’s world like:  funding issues, standardized testing, grading, differentiation, value added assessments, living by what is in an IEP, and all the other things that many do not like.  But they are the reality of the teaching profession today.

We can work hard to change the things we disagree with, but how do we live with them, when they are the law, regulation, rules, etc., and if acknowledge that we ignore them, we do so at our own peril.  In this blog, I will not always take the popular teacher position on a subject or the one that I personally would choose if I were “King for a Day”.  Sometimes even teachers can get blinders on about their pet causes or peeves – we are after all very human.

Please notice that according to the title that I only have only one foot in reality, because I believe that the solutions to many of our issues and problems in education (or else where) are not going to be found by continuing the current status quo, ignoring technology, setting standards, management by objective or following the money.  I plan to explore many “new” and some “old” ways to see what works for me in my classrooms and the students I serve.

The teaching profession needs to look at and for solutions that are outside of the box that we are currently in, even though there are pockets of excellence, there are too many things that need to change for education in America to be what it needs to be for our students.   In my opinion the first question we need ask and answer before making new policy or mandates is how what is being proposed affect all of our students – not just those at either end of the academic scale or socio-economic class.

I do not believe that educational or political leaders who have been out of schools for 5-10 or more years ago or are from other professions that have never stepped foot in the classroom, except for photo opps or to watch a teacher teach, are the appropriate ones to be mandating solutions for the classroom.  That is my personal and professional perspective on this subject, I may be wrong, but it is how I believe.

I hope that you will enjoy my writing on this new blog and I hope that I keep “One Foot grounded in Reality, while the rest of me looks for other ways to improve how I teach my students.