how, as teachers, we once had a chance to use special interests and creativity. I have respect for a former superintendent (now deceased) because we used to talk in the 1970s and into the 80s -- he was a musician and he would share "daisy. chains". and "trading eights" and I didn't have that background in music but I understood what he was saying. Have we lost all those administrators? Have we become rigid and rigorous in our daily classroom presentations? (Isn't there just a little bit of "performance" in the best teacher's lessons? Yes, No? How do you know?). A 2nd grade teacher in my building went to Ireland every summer and studied Yeats -- she was able to incorporate ideas into her classroom (and we concentrated on Whittier or Robert Frost but she was knowledgable and creative within the guidelines and we had support from the principal etc. . The MA curriculum frameworks (under Associate Commissioner ) encouraged this but the rigid interpretation of the Common -ness of CORE cut into the teacher's ability to add or supplement (there was a percentage assigned as far as how much you could do that). It is my belief that our students lost out.
how, as teachers, we once had a chance to use special interests and creativity. I have respect for a former superintendent (now deceased) because we used to talk in the 1970s and into the 80s -- he was a musician and he would share "daisy. chains". and "trading eights" and I didn't have that background in music but I understood what he was saying. Have we lost all those administrators? Have we become rigid and rigorous in our daily classroom presentations? (Isn't there just a little bit of "performance" in the best teacher's lessons? Yes, No? How do you know?). A 2nd grade teacher in my building went to Ireland every summer and studied Yeats -- she was able to incorporate ideas into her classroom (and we concentrated on Whittier or Robert Frost but she was knowledgable and creative within the guidelines and we had support from the principal etc. . The MA curriculum frameworks (under Associate Commissioner ) encouraged this but the rigid interpretation of the Common -ness of CORE cut into the teacher's ability to add or supplement (there was a percentage assigned as far as how much you could do that). It is my belief that our students lost out.
Beautiful explanation of why variety and the sense of wonderment is needed to stimulate learning.