C4Ta#2

My teacher for C4Ta is Dean Shareski.




The first blog of his that I commented on was entitled "Things I was Never Told". He talks about how young teachers don't realize the world they are entering by becoming teachers. He states that he wants to give new teachers a heads up on some issues they will face. The first issue is the lack of professionalism. Teachers used to be as Shareski says "isolated". They could shut their door and just teach without fear of doing something wrong. Now days their is a tension between the administration and teachers. The second issue is rolling the dice with schools. More and more research is showing that the principal is the most important person in a school. If a principal rallys behind the school and is excited about what they are teaching and doing, teachers are happier to teach and students are happier to learn. However, if the principal doesn't care very much it adds pressure on the teachers. The third issue is you're not an instructor. When Shareski graduated college he focused on strategy, instruction, and methods. He says it took him a while to figure out that instruction was only part of his job. 30%-40% of his time was devoted to guided individual learning.

The second blog I commented on was entitled "Visitors and Residents and Virtual Citizenship". Shareski talks about when a school is looking to incorporate the internet into their curriculum, they must first emphazise the dangers of thoughtless online behavior. Most educator just tell their student "don't do bad stuff". He says that this its mostly damage control. Most students are more than visitors of the internet. They are more like residents. Telling a child to not do bad thing online is like telling an American how to be a good US citizen.