http://www.erickeyes.com/one-mans-opinion-on-vampires/ Sun, 23 Oct 2011 03:45:47 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 http://www.erickeyes.com/one-mans-opinion-on-vampires/comment-page-1/#comment-482 Paul Fri, 14 Aug 2009 16:57:13 +0000 http://www.erickeyes.com/?p=945#comment-482 "...teachers in an increasingly survival-of-the-very-fittest education system—all these emphasize the individual and (their) goals, not (their) need for involvement with others (students, collegues)." You are spot on with this one.()indicates my inserts. The average career span of a teacher is 5 or less years, depending on the situation they are in: socio-eco status of students vs. that of the teacher. Core subject teachers are so pushed to get good results on Standardized Tests-which are really money makers for the test writing and textbook empires-that they have little time to get to really understand the individual student, grasp how they learn, teach them from a place of understanding and not simply ramming formulas and dates down their throats. Veteran teachers, most of them, I believe they genuinely would like to teach students 'how to fish instead of force feeding them'. Yes, for the teachers and the students, it unfortunately becomes 'survival'. For the more economically challenged districts, when asked to sink or swim for these tests, a heap of other factors only make treading water that much harder, and swimming sometimes is not even considered. Who's the vampire in this one? State, local governments, and in particular most of a school board, food service providers, and definitely the Superintendants who make over 250K/yr. The victim? Students, Teachers, Parents(who care), the immediate community, and the world outside of it. As far as blogging, I don't see it as a bad thing. Facebook is a great way to communicate long distances, but I also heard it described as 'facebrag'. You hit that target without aiming. Twitter? What is the point of saying less than 25 words on anything, unless its the Dalai Lama? Electronic sabbatical is always a great idea. In the words of Brave Combo-"Do something different, disappear". For real world issues like the Green Revolution in Iran recently, well a massacre actually, social networking like youtube can be a good thing. The networks and government can not shut us down comletely anymore. Peace Y'all! “…teachers in an increasingly survival-of-the-very-fittest education system—all these emphasize the individual and (their) goals, not (their) need for involvement with others (students, collegues).”
You are spot on with this one.()indicates my inserts. The average career span of a teacher is 5 or less years, depending on the situation they are in: socio-eco status of students vs. that of the teacher. Core subject teachers are so pushed to get good results on Standardized Tests-which are really money makers for the test writing and textbook empires-that they have little time to get to really understand the individual student, grasp how they learn, teach them from a place of understanding and not simply ramming formulas and dates down their throats. Veteran teachers, most of them, I believe they genuinely would like to teach students ‘how to fish instead of force feeding them’. Yes, for the teachers and the students, it unfortunately becomes ‘survival’. For the more economically challenged districts, when asked to sink or swim for these tests, a heap of other factors only make treading water that much harder, and swimming sometimes is not even considered. Who’s the vampire in this one? State, local governments, and in particular most of a school board, food service providers, and definitely the Superintendants who make over 250K/yr. The victim? Students, Teachers, Parents(who care), the immediate community, and the world outside of it.
As far as blogging, I don’t see it as a bad thing. Facebook is a great way to communicate long distances, but I also heard it described as ‘facebrag’. You hit that target without aiming. Twitter? What is the point of saying less than 25 words on anything, unless its the Dalai Lama?
Electronic sabbatical is always a great idea. In the words of Brave Combo-”Do something different, disappear”.
For real world issues like the Green Revolution in Iran recently, well a massacre actually, social networking like youtube can be a good thing. The networks and government can not shut us down comletely anymore.
Peace Y’all!

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