By Tom

"As the circle of light increases, so does the circumference of darkness around it." -Albert Einstein

Ten years ago I thought I was a much better teacher than I think I am now. I had things in my classroom well under control. I'd taught the same grade at the same school for over fifteen years. I knew the curriculum really well. My kids behaved themselves. Parents liked me. My job was becoming increasingly effortless. I had conquered teaching as I knew it.

It wasn't always easy. When I first started out, teaching was very difficult for me, particularly the organizational part of it. I forgot important stuff. During my second year on the job I forgot to hand out the order forms for school pictures. Fortunately one of my colleagues spotted them on my desk and expressed concern that my entire class wouldn't be able to order their pictures. "You know, for a lot of moms, those are more important than report cards!" Of course by then, the kids had gone home, and the pictures were the next day. So I was on the phone all evening, describing the various packages to all 24 mothers. "...Package B includes two 5 by 7s, one 8 by ten and sixteen wallets. The price is $12.95. Now Package C, on the other hand..."

It was a long night, and a valuable learning experience.

When taking down an education system, it is important to know which areas are crucial and will cause the most future distress. Once you have targeted that, you will be able to take down an education system in a few easy steps.

Washington State is taking a serious look at the way schools are funded. In fact, the "Basic Education Finance Joint Task Force" is currently discussing five separate proposals, each of which would dramatically change our state school system.

I like the proposal put forth by the Full Funding Coalition a lot. I think it's pretty good for a number of reasons. I don't care so much for the status quo. I think it's bad. And there's one proposal on the table that just plain frightens me. That's the one proposed by the chair of the Task Force, Dan Grimm.

Before I get all specific with you, I need to claim a caveat: my experience has not prepared me to pass judgment on all aspects of these five very detailed proposals. But I do know what I'm talking about on certain topics, including teacher professional development time, class size, and performance pay. So I'll stick to those.

By Tom

I got a new kid this week. I first spotted him in the office. He was sitting there next to his mom, who was filling out the new kid forms that we use in our school. So I started up a conversation, asking him where he was from, how old he was; the usual things adults ask kids when they don’t have anything to talk about.

 

Turns out he’s a third grader, and he’s assigned to my class. He started the following day, after I got to learn about him from his file. And from the CPS field officer assigned to his case.

I’ve been thinking about the task ahead of me. And I’ve also been thinking about apples, our profession’s ubiquitous icon.

 

On Fridays, I pick my sons up from school at 12:45 pm. It is a partial day. What is done with the rest of the day connects back to Thursday's post.

Thursday is library day for my sons at MLC. I remember the trips I would take with my class to the library. There was a shelf of science books that I checked out; I started with the first book on the shelf and worked my way through the stack. My sons enjoy the library and I am glad of how it is integrated into the classroom curriculum.

Doing more with less. This is often the statement that is handed to you from above...do what you have always been doing, in fact do a little more, and do it all with less. But what if doing more with less was a personal choice for a school?

The parking lot at MLC amazes me; my sons attend this school. In many ways the parking lot inspires me to believe again in the desire of people to do good for the greater good. The parking lot at MLC is not much larger than a typical gym (two basket ball courts), but somehow, every day, the cars come in, park, and go out without any hassle. What gets me is that there are no painted parking spots.

It was a rainy Monday morning, not too unlike other mornings in the northwest, as I took my sons to school. Today was Monday and so with it came the "All School Gathering". My sons attend Metropolitan Learning Center. This is a K-12 school with about 425 students. MLC is unique and has shown that it can be successful by being unique and placing first what matters most--students. For this week, I will briefly describe one salient point from the day. Hopefully we can take some of these successes and use them in our own schools.