![]() I’d sat back down at my desk, which faced them from the front corner of the room, and I was starting to go through some sort of paperwork or grading or whatever. Lined up in rows, pencils sharpened, tests handed out, and we were about four minutes into it, so by that point everyone was fully settled. Just picture them all sitting in their desks. I have zero memory of what the test was over that’s not important. This was around February or March, by which time I had gotten to know them pretty well and we had a routine down. But in general, an easy group to work with. Not that the class was all business they goofed around some, didn’t always do everything right, socialized and freaked out and complained just like any kid that age. They took themselves and their work as seriously as 13-year-olds could. And-in equal measure-slang and humor and cussing and stories, some of them stories of times when I made bad decisions and wasn’t a good role model. My building materials are practical advice, the wisdom of academics and practicing teachers, and clear, simple language. I’m trying to build bridges in that space. I am something else, someone who tries to stand in the space between the serious academics and the people on the ground, grinding out the teaching work day after day. ![]() I hope I’ve never given the impression that I’m trying to pass myself off as belonging in their ranks. I’m grateful to these people for the work they do, and I try to help them get the word out about what they’re learning.īut I am not one of them. The world is full of serious academics who have devoted years to learning how to conduct, consume, and disseminate high-quality research. I decided I was long overdue for some fluff. That email made me take a good hard look at my body of work, and I realized it’s been a while since I wrote something truly fluffy, something that didn’t even pretend to be research-based. A few weeks ago, a reader emailed me to inform me that she was going to stop sharing my articles with her pre-service teachers until I got more serious about referencing real research in my posts, instead of the fluff I’m basing them on now. I think at least two valuable lessons about teaching might be buried inside it, so after I tell the story, I’m going to see what nuggets of wisdom I can extract from it.įinally, I’m telling it because it’s inappropriate. I’m also telling it because it might be worth more than a quick laugh. I’ll get back to all the really important stuff soon, but for now I’m just going to tell a little story about a moment in my teaching career that has always stuck with me, and has probably also stuck with the students who sat in my classroom that day. I’m preparing to take a month off from blogging and sharing this story seems like a good way to go out. I’m telling it for several reasons: One, I’m a little burned out on teaching strategies and education research.
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