80% of My Time

January 4, 2016

Day 189 as an Oklahoma Teacher

     So I began this day with professional development. We watched a couple of Todd Whitaker videos. Whitaker discussed the qualities of a great teacher and a poor teacher. One idea was that great teachers determine what students will do next while students will determine what poor teachers will do next. The one idea that had a significant impact on me were the three questions to consider when implementing an idea. What is the purpose? Will this actually work? What will people think? He used homework as an example; he said that there should be a purpose for homework and not a reason. In my opinion, homework should relate to time management skills. Students need to make goals, plan out what should be completed, and meet the deadline. Don't college students have to do this with some of their college work? Don't people have to make deadlines at work? Homework that takes hours for students to complete at night or homework that only consists of worksheets should be ditched. Ditch the worksheet!

     Tomorrow,  my seniors and my son will begin their last semester in high school. They also have to complete the senior project. They did the dirty work last semester, researching, planning, and writing a research paper. Now, it's time to do something with the paper. Here's my plan: revise and edit the senior paper, outline, and proposal letter, create two digital advertisements about the project, design an artifact to use for the presentations in May, and complete the work at home and on Genius Hour Fridays. Some ideas include documenting the steps it took to make a piece of art, putting together a Harry Potter Quidditch game, and documenting the senior year and giving advice to underclassmen. I can't wait to see all the wonderful projects my seniors will create. Their speeches will follow a Ted Talk format, but I want to come up with a different name. Hopefully, I can come up with something by tomorrow. I have said that education is not about regurgitation but about collaboration and innovation. By the way, this blog is my project. I told my students that I would go through the steps of the research paper and project with them. School takes about 80% of my time with 20% left over for cleaning my house or watching T.V. Every idea that I have revolves around education. I often wonder what will happen when I retire, and I don't have to think about education. I better have a backup plan in a few years.

Adieu until next time!