pdZone

Okay, I avoided the Which Fantasy/SciFi Character Are You? quiz for a while, but I finally broke down. It was kind of cool to have my personality defined as being most like Jean-Luc Picard. I do like the leadership model of leading by example rather than the top-down model.

It gives me pause to think. I have been giving serious thought to entering administration, but have been starting to have reservations. I really think that I can do more good system-wide in my present role than I could as an administrator in a single school.

The following quote about Picard (from Mario Guatteri’s TNG fan site) really made me go hmmmm…

Picard was offered a promotion to the admiralty in 2364 when Admiral Gregory Quinn was attempting to consolidate his power base to combat an unknown alien intelligence that was trying to take over Starfleet Command. Picard declined the offer, citing his belief that he could better serve the Federation as a starship commander.

I am no Picard, either in terms of personality or accomplishments. However, I would like to think that I share some of the philosophical ideals that I have seen in this character over the past – eep! – almost 20 years.

Twenty years! I wondered why my whiskers were starting to look more… distinguished.

While I am excited about my new position, there are aspects of my old job that I miss. For instance, I miss being able to throw new pieces of information, or new projects, into the mix with the kids. I came across the Round the World Yacht Race site today and thought about some of the possibilities for Computers, Science, French, etc. On the other hand, now I can probably make more interesting things happen because I am able to get other teachers to try new ideas that I couldn’t fit into my own practice. I suppose it is up to me to recognize that maybe the grass is greener on my side of the fence.

I head back to work tomorrow and I needed a bit of a laugh. I found what I needed!

Here is a great idea for a little attention-getter to try to encourage reading for boys.

“Researching blogs and blogging research: synergies of colliding worlds”

As a soon-to-be literacy teacher, I find this article very interesting. Getting students to want to read – particularly boys – can be a major challenge. I have a few ideas that I would like to try to implement next year, but I’ll have to see how things go.

I have spent the past couple of days (tomorrow as well) in literacy workshops. I will be taking on a literacy assignment in the fall, so this should prove to be good PD for me. It’s really too bad that all teachers are not afforded to take whatever workshops they feel would best suit their needs as educators. I certainly understand that economic realities preclude this, but it is just such a revitalizing experience.

There was a time when I would have grumbled about having to take part in a workshop. I felt that I didn’t have time to waste on somebody else’s make-work project. Over the years, my perspective has changed. I am no longer so arrogant to assume that there is nothing new that I need to learn. In fact, the more I learn, the more I realize I still don’t know. Sitting through the workshop I find new ideas popping into my head (construction of knowledge!). These are ideas that I hope to be able to implement next year.

Walking out today, I found my head was spinning. Maybe it was the coffee, or the fact that I am running on about six hours of sleep on a good night, or maybe it is due to the fact that the hamster is really getting a workout in there. I still feel like a bit of a dim bulb when I look at the task ahead of me, but days like this make me feel a bit more like a 40 Watt-er than a 10.

Key quote:

One thing I have tried in the last few years is to have students turn in papers with a “code word” at the top, instead of their name. That way, when I mark them, I rarely know who kid wrote a paper. And it’s a simple way to remove any expectations I have based on previous performance to a current assignment.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/eti/2005/05/000835.php