New Blog for a New School year

One of my professional learning goals this year is to do a better job of articulating my thinking on the wide swath of educational topics that typically populate my mind. My tremendous fascination with learning, teaching, and human development leads me to dive deep into research on a pretty much daily basis. However, since finishing grad school and stepping into the baptismal fire that characterizes the first few years of teaching, I have neglected to formally synthesize and share my thinking outside of leadership meetings, PD opportunities, and impromptu teacher huddles. This post is the beginning of changing that.

The purposes of this re-vamped site are twofold: First, I want to archive my thinking, creating a thinking portfolio for ongoing analysis and reflection on teaching principles and practices. Doing so will help me clarify my thinking and help me grow as a teacher. Second, I want this site to be an honest illustration of my work as an educational practitioner and thinker. I hope to join the vigorous conversations I come across through my PLN and contribute to the dialogue. I also hope this site will give future employers a better understanding of my strengths. Potential principals simply cannot understand who I am and what I offer through a CV screening and interview process. I have been overlooked time and again and I know it is not because I don't measure up. Having been on both sides of the hiring process, I know that it only provides a brief snapshot of a teacher at best and that recruiters tend to be misguided in over-privileging years of experience (which in and of themselves tell us nothing about teacher quality). While a web site cannot provide anyone a comprehensive and holistic look at what I do either, it can at least fill in some gaps.

My specific intentions for the site at the outset are to (a) routinely share my thinking on teaching and education-related issues via this blog, and (b) to develop pages on topics that matter to me so I can more fully express who I am as a teacher.

In doing the latter, I expect to build the following sections:

• Core educational principles
• Research into effective assessment and instructional practices
• Developing well-being by embedding the findings from positive psychology and holistic practices
• Democratic citizenship learning
• Educational teachnology
• Professional development and school improvement