I've saved all of your posts and have reread this one several times. I've reflected deeply on the sentiment that some of you are trying to move teachers in a direction they don't want to travel...and I've tried not to let your posts bother me. But now, LOL, I can't stand it anymore and I'm going to tell you why they do.
As a teacher who WANTS with all her heart to teach deeply and to the highest of expectations, I am bothered that our coaches think I need no help. All coaching help goes to the new teachers. I find this sad for two reasons: first, I want to improve. Secondly, the help that is going to our new teachers is not deep. Believe me, our new teachers are hard-working, but the standard in my district is high and they're swimming as fast as they can just to survive day-to-day. We have 2 brand new teachers (of 4) at my grade level. I've put in a lot of time helping them and I believe they're just not ready for deep thinking as they don't know anything about teaching reading. Perhaps Ellin will say that ALL teachers can start off with comprehension strategies on day #1, but it seems to me these darling new teachers need some foundation in the more tangible aspects (like decoding, fluency, and surface/literal comprehension). It seems to me that they just don't have enough understanding of the reading process to be ready for the really tough stuff. I hope you'll say I'm wrong and that they can do it all, but I wonder.... Judy -------------- Original message ---------------------- From: Steve Mabry <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > HI all! > > I am intrigued by the final question for our first reading. > > ....In what ways can we live our adult lives as intellectually curious > leaders > for our students and for our colleagues? > > I can't tell you how many nights I stayed up thinking - why didn't my > teachers > get it? Why don't they want to help their students - to move them beyond the > expected curriculum and into differentiation and individualization and > understanding? Why they didn't have an internal drive and motivation to > replicate what Ellin and Debbie and everyone was writing about and modeling > in > their books? I modeled the ideas and goals at faculty meetings and in our > weekly newsletters by both taking pictures of the activities and usage of the > strategies in classes and including snapshots and ideas from the books > themselves. > > But I could not motivate the teachers who were in the "been there done that" > mode. They made fun of the teachers who were taking leaps. They got > extremely > cliquey. It was just so depressing! What kept me going was the fact that I > knew what I was writing/talking/modeling was right for both the teacher and > the > students. > > So....to answer the question - by modeling, blogging, dicsussing, showing how > to > never stop learning...our actions speak louder than words. The sad thing is > that there are so many of us who are isolated islands of application. The > good > thing is that there are places like this where the isolated islands can find > refuge, mentorship, and relief. > > But how to be there for our colleagues? I think they have to be ready first. > > I obviously never figured out the answer to that one! > Lori > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Understand mailing list > [email protected] > http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/listinfo/understand_literacyworkshop.org
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