Random muttering.

I have been woefully negligent in posting this year. That does not mean that I'm not thinking about how to teach English or writing. I've just been doing it the old fashioned way in a notebook instead of here where I can share it with you. However, we're in the throws of EOC testing today and I am administering a test to my Honors freshmen and typing while I watch them struggle over testing company written passages and multiple choice questions that are randomly selected for maximum annoyance. So, since I'm watching students go cross-eyed and boggle minded I thought I would post on my poor neglected blog.

I want to make a difference in the field of education not just in students. I want to influence other teachers to do a better job as teachers sot hat fewer students leave our high schools fed up with education.I want to be an innovator in the field. I want to share what I am thinking about and trying in my classroom. That's a goal. BUT! And it's a giant BUT because it always gets in the way. Life happens. I had my third daughter in January. Nothing like maternity leave to throw off the rythym of the classroom. I've spent everyday since I've been back just trying to catch myself coming and going.
I don't know how many mom/teachers there are out there, but there is a reason I choose the teaching profession. I want to contribute to society and I want to raise well rounded healthy children. I want to be intellectually challenged and spend long periods of time at home with my children. I want to make and impact  on the lives of teenagers and impact my own children. The only way I could think of to do this was to become a teacher.
That's not to say I'm not passionate about what I do. Just the reverse actually. I am passionate about shaping future Americans. I teach English. I get to work on the way students think more than any other teacher. I get to walk into their hearts as well as their minds and touch them through the art of language. Language has power! Power to heal and bring life where there is no life. Can you see that I'm passionate?
I work in the best school in the US. I get frustrated when radio commentators rail at educators and the American education system as if we are all deserving of a whipping out behind the wood shed instead of acknowledging that some schools in the Midwest aren't bogged down by bureaucracy and we are trying. We're not all broken! Some of us are working well and pushing forward into the future with a good outlook. We're working to start the reforms that everybody talks about. Don't make broad blanket statements! They are usually lies.