A small epiphany

So on a trip to see family I was lamenting on a very technical aspect of my work to my wife, and then the rest of the day I mulled over a way to solve that problem, or at least mitigate it. Before going on to detailing this epiphany, let me warn my readers that it is not earth-shaking, not as monumental as the invention of the iPad, smart tv remote, or the wheel. Okay, here goes . . .

My superiors expect a lot of us in terms of computer applications we use as professionals. There is the tacit endorsement of Powerpoint as the lingua franca of presentations. There is the requirement that we use a district-obtained grading program that tracks and reports on student progress. This year we have a push to use a special kind of presentation software-hardware duo that is essentially the newest iteration of the Smart Board. We rely on Microsoft Outlook for e-mail (don't forget to check it often during the day - I probably get two dozen e-mails on a slow day). And, of course there has to be a written lesson plan lest we be descended upon in the middle of our day by a principal or supervisor. I've always rendered my lesson plans in MIcrosoft Word. Oh, and don't forget that we are required to maintain a website via Sharepoint for the kids and parents to access us.

So, at minimum, I need to on a daily basis maintain and use six distinct programs to meet the minimum expectations of our superiors. That's a lot to keep up with. And such requirements create a leakage of valuable time and energy that could be otherwise employed in the art of engaging my students.

The most finite resource is time. There's always 24 hours of it each day. And the economics teacher in me tells me that I get diminishing marginal returns from using more than 12 of it a day on this job.

Oh, if I were to be king for a day. I could use district resources to buy an all-in-one software suite that could serve as my web presence, my e-mail program, and my grade reporting software. Sigh. We're too busy saving money to find that software which I'm sure Blackboard has available.

So here's my idea for 2012: Move away from the Microsoft presentation products. I think I have just killed the Microsoft-Word-generated lesson plan, which has been with me since the late 20th century. From now on, the lesson plan is getting posted on the website I have to maintain, where my students already turn for dates and copies of assignments and notes. Oh, and the hue and cry that will rise from the earth when the persnickety supervisor who demands t's to be crossed and i's to be dotted on our lesson plans . . . well at least I can say they're written.

Every year there's a new initiative and a new requirement, and every year we don't hear a clear message as to what we don't need to do any longer. I figure I have lost the time time in my rhythm as a teacher to write out a document only I ever see for the benefit of an administrator who has the right to a copy on demand.

I'm not sure where this road is leading . . .

. . . but it's paved with good intentions.

Here are the basics. I'm a dad, a big brother, a son, a Lutheran, and a teacher. It's that last job title that will be the focus of this blog.

I launch this blog at the end of the toughest calendar year - 2011 - in my career. It was a year of setbacks, both in terms of my own career track and in terms of what I see at work in this profession. I spent enough time stewing in 2011, and I resolve to do something, make that some things, more constructive in 2012.

Some basics about me.

Board policies preclude me from divulging my name or school. I'm a teacher. I have been for more than a dozen years.

I teach high school Social Studies, splitting my time between economics and history.

I have awesome students. That has been typical of my career.

I have some very good friends on a faculty that is filled with stellar teachers.

I would like to settle upon the pseudonym Andrew Johnson High School for where I work. I tried Franklin Pierce H.S. figuring that there was no way a district named itself after America's worst president, but I was wrong. However, I couldn't find any who named themselves after our second worst.

AJHS is in an affluent suburb on the East coast.

A final note for this evening: though children are frustrating at times, they are wonderful. This will not be a blog in which I demean the kids I'm fortunate enough to teach. I give myself the right to poke fun at adolescence, but will not demean the adolescents I see in my room and in the hallway. I ask the readers of this blog to hold me accountable if I fail to do just that.

In fact, it's for them that I write this. No, not that I intend for my students to read this. I hope that this blog helps me articulate a coherent guiding principle for what I'm doing for them. In 2011 I learned that a lot of the values I had believed guided professional life at AJHS no longer exist. And teachers like me need to figure out how to persist at elevating our kids' mind and soul despite crosswinds that are formidable and withering.

So, I don't know where this road (blog, career path, the next day's lesson plan) is leading, but it's paved with good intentions.