A Teacher's Weekend

January 16th-18th, 2016

Days 201-203 as an Oklahoma Teacher

     I feel like singing "Celebration" by Kool & the Gang because I have a three day weekend. Most of my time will be spent cleaning my house and working on school stuff. Creating ideas to use in my classroom has overtaken my life. I am constantly thinking about ways to improve education. I have been in this educational realm for almost 25 years, and nothing changes. There has always been the same standards, the same curriculum, the same 45 minutes of a class, the same structure of a school, and the same isolation of the subjects. What school is ready to be the first one to try something new? Why is it we just wait around for changes to be made when we should be the ones recommending the changes? Traditional public schools are archaic, and it's time for a make-over.
    On Monday, I read about Chickasha High School trying a new program. Students will be working at their own pace, teachers will be the guides on the side, and eventually, students could earn college credit. Yes! Finally, administrators are being proactive and not reactive. As Mr. Holland told me, "Try something new, and if it doesn't work, try something else." If we don't take risks, then we will always get the same results. It's time to either choose a different path to take in education or improve the one that we have been traveling all the years. This plan actually sounds like an assignment I had to complete when I was working on my Master's Degree in Secondary Education. Yvonne Allen, Lisa O'Kelley, and I had to create our own school. In our school, students learned at their own pace. They only went to a class if they needed help. It wasn't about a test score; it was learning the content and applying it to the real-world.
     Now, back to my to-do list for this weekend. I need to grade papers, write lesson plans, read a couple of books, participate in the #oklaed chat, write several recommendation letters, and shop for books at Goodwill.