Educators

Wendy Bradshaw has multiple degrees, including a doctorate, and years of experience in education, but she said she’d rather quit her job than have to teach her students from Florida’s current curriculum for the public school system.

Mark Sylvester talks about how edConnecter has changed the interactions educators have during CEM and what we can learn about connected networks of lifelong learners.

Sheree Woods is sitting in her car in the parking lot of a mini-mall in a Los Angeles suburb, with the air conditioning blasting.

Now that I’m teaching college students, I often think back to some of my favorite professors and their teaching styles and try to incorporate them into my own teaching. I’d like to think there’s a lot to be learned from educators you admire. On the flip side of that, I can think of at least five professor-types I’ve been hostage to in my academic career that I don’t want to emulate, ever. You know the types: Everyone has at least one professor horror story.Here are five of the professor personality types that drove me (and probably you, too) crazy in college:1-The Personal Philosopher. And it’s not even a philosophy class. You know this guy. He seems to wander off into random thoughts, but aloud. He’s giving a linguistics lecture about Greek prefixes in the English language that turns into a deep one-way conversation about the root word “mono.” He offers the word “monogamy” as an example, then goes off on a tangent about its definition and whether or not this is the natural state of the human condition. “Is it ethically and biologically possible,” he asks aloud, “For human beings to truly commit to one person for an unforeseen lifetime, given unforseen circumstances and challenges? Who knows what lies ahead of any of us!” (The room goes deadly quiet. Clearly, there are some personal issues here and it’s getting kinda uncomfortable.)2-The Crusher. His whole mission in life is to mess with you and crush your GPA. It doesn’t matter if you’ve mastered the content, this professor is your transcript’s Alpha Dog, and he won’t let you forget it. He’s smarter than you because he controls the test, your grade, your future. His mind-blowing multiple choice exams consist of the usual “a,” “b,” “c” and “d” answers, with a few more zingers thrown in like “a and c,” “a, b and c” and finally “Not enough information provided to answer.” When you study, it feels like the facts are playing ping-pong in your brain. Your head explodes. That’s what he wants. He’s a firm believer in the Bell Curve, so if you manage to score a high grade on one of his waste-of-time “assessments,” he’ll bust you down to a C — “because most students are average.”3-The Professor who Slips in and out of His/Her Native Language, and It Isn’t Yours. This prof’s first language is not English, and that is fine. Diversity of culture and experience is an asset to one’s education. The problem here is a major language barrier that is impassable to every student in the room. This is the professor whose accent makes it difficult to understand what she’s saying, and yet, it’s a far cry from the confusion that results when she slips completely back into her native tongue, a little-known language that you can’t figure out. At that point, even recording the lecture is pointless. You’d find and pay a translator if you could figure out what language this professor is speaking.4-The Super Intellectual. Ok, professors are supposed to be highly intelligent and focused on one academic area. We get that. But this one can be heard discussing advanced microeconomic theory at Parents’ Weekend receptions. When asked what she does in her spare time, she discloses, with a wink, that her favorite crossword answer is “endoplasmic reticulum.” Who even does crosswords with answers like that? Directions to a local restaurant turn into a dissertation on the oppression of the proletariat. You try not to run into this professor outside of class, because it’s at least 30 minutes of your life you’ll never get back. You sit through her lectures not sure what to write down because you don’t have a clue as to what she’s talking about. Requests for explanation only result in more confusion. A teacher mentor once told me, “If you can’t explain something simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” No doubt the super-intellectual professor understands it, but she can’t explain it simply. It’s just not in her Deoxyribonucleic Acid.5-The Quirky Professor. We’ve all known at least one of these. It’s the professor who defines “eccentric.” If your professor insists that you spell words like “licence” and “criticise” the way they are spelled Across the Pond — though she’s never lived in the UK, or when he shows up to class everyday with an empty tuna fish can that he uses as an ashtray (Yes, kids, back in the day, professors smoked in class), that is quirky. I once had a quirky professor who spent the entire Pre-Civil War American History course obsessed with every detail of the Salem Witch Trials “because the fungus that grew on the population’s wheat had simliar properties to mind-altering drugs.” This guy talked about almost nothing else for four months. We students had a theory that this professor was smoking something that didn’t require the use of a tuna can.Those are my scary recollections. Know any I may have left out?  

By Yvonne Wingett SanchezAfter years of ignoring pleas to put significant money into schools, Arizona politicians are suddenly tripping over each other to find a way to pump billions of dollars into education.Gov. Doug Ducey, Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas, and many Republican and Democratic lawmakers want to dig deeper into state coffers to get more money to schools, and each has a plan.

I recently had a chance to talk with renowned “rapping” math teacher Mark Rogers from Round Rock, Texas. Rogers shared the story of how he got his start in teaching and discussed the role humanity plays in his day-to-day activities with students. After watching the interview, check out the YouTube video displaying Mark’s creative side in education.

The Internet is a hub where virtually everything can be a commodity, and students with Web access have entry to a wealth of information. That same principle now applies to teachers.Some argue that education is a learning tool that should be free nationwide, yet some teachers are starting to cash in on the same classroom lessons they teach, with help from an online education resource called TeachersPayTeachers.com (TpT).

Something I recommend in my work with schools and districts is to leverage social media to their advantage as a professional development tool. When I ask a group of educators how many are using Twitter, either personally or professionally, I am frequently saddened by the lack of hands I see raised. Many teachers think of Twitter as something with no value in the education realm. After all, how much content can you receive in 140 characters. Just the opposite is true. Twitter might be the strongest professional development tool available – and it’s free!The secret to getting the most out of Twitter as an educator lies in knowing how to use hashtags (#) – those things we used to call the number signs last century. I would recommend educators new to Twitter do a few things to begin getting the most out of this great resource.First, if you don’t already have one, get a Twitter account. It’s fast, easy, and free. Go to www.com, click on login on the top right, and then click “New User.” Fill out just a little information and you now have a Twitter account. Be sure to complete your profile and include in that profile that you are an educator. This becomes very important when you begin building your professional learning network (PLN).Once you have an account, look for the search window on the top right next to your name. In the “Search Twitter” window, type #edchat and then return. Edchat is one of the oldest and largest education focused chats on Take a few minutes to browse the archives. Read the rich discussions that happen every week on this chat. You can also browse the archives by going to https://edchat.pbworks.com/w/page/219908/FrontPage. Every weekly Edchat conversation is archived there. Look at the listing by date and then click to read. Some of the top names in professional development are regulars on Edchat.While Edchat is it one of the largest and oldest chats on Twitter, there are scores of focused chats that might appeal to you even more. Find a chat that most appeals to you by going to https://sites.google.com/site/twittereducationchats/education-chat-calendar. This Google calendar lists all of the major chats by interest area and lets you know when they are live.Some are geographically-focused like #MOEdchat for Missouri educators or #Africaed for African educators. Others are content-focused. #ELAChat, focusing on English and Language Arts, and #Precalcchat, discussing Pre-Calculus issues, are just two examples. There are also job-alike sessions like #ElemMathChat, #SpecEdChat, and #SuptChat. At first you probably will join a chat and just watch the conversations. This is called lurking and is a perfectly acceptable way to get started in live chatting. At some point though, you will have a question or feel compelled to reply to a comment. Just compose a tweet and be sure to add the hashtag of that particular chat at the end of your tweet so it appears in the flow of conversation. That’s it!The final step in getting the most out of Twitter is to follow smart people. When you follow someone you will see his or her tweets when you log onto Most people will follow you back. The more people you follow the wider and more powerful your PLN becomes. Unlike Facebook where friending someone you really don’t know in person is frowned upon and just a bit creepy, following other educators on Twitter is widely accepted and considered smart. Start by following me @hpitler and I promise to follow you back IF you have mentioned in your profile that you are in education.Once you get involved in Twitter as a way to grow professionally, the possibilities are almost limitless. Gather research for an article or blog post by posting questions to your PLN. Receive constructive criticism on a lesson plan, presentation, or idea from other educators. Share tips and get advice on things like parent/teacher conferences and open houses. Collaborate with others to solve a specific issue at your school. Once you get started you just might become an evangelist. I know I did.Howard Pitler, Ed.D. is an author of “Classroom Instruction that Works,” 2nd ed., “Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works”, and “A Handbook for Classroom Instruction that Works,” 2nd ed. He has worked with teachers and administrators internationally for over a decade to improve outcomes for kids. He was named a National Distinguished Principal by NAESP and is an Apple Distinguished Educator. He can be reached at hpitler@gmail.com, on Twitter at @hpitler, or on his website, www.hpitler.com

More than half of teachers in England (53%) are thinking of quitting in the next two years, a survey has suggested.The survey, conducted by the National Union of Teachers, found 61% of those wanting to leave blamed workload and 57% desired a better work/life balance.