My Glass is Half Full (Sort-of)

Darling-Hammond brings up some interesting ideas.  She has given all of us a lot to think about.  She is a little skimpy on the solutions, though.  The last chapters have a annoying ring of idealism.  Fine for her, but call me cynical, as veteran classroom teachers the sounds of reality overshadow any sort of idealism we might have once had.

Now the half-full stuff...

So, I found myself searching for suggestions that might work in my reality, and I started thinking about her ideas on networking and collaboration.   As the only English 9 (and 11 and 12) teacher in my school, I really am an island.  I recognize that I frequently reinvent the wheel, and lots of new materials or activities that I use only come to be through trial and error.  But I don’t need a whole bunch of state or federal dollars to reach out to other teachers who are teaching what I am.  In the age of blogs, emails, and Dropbox, I could easily build a support system for myself and my teaching. 

Technology could also be used to set up collaborations as well.  I usually think about collaboration as being something that goes on within the same building, (something we are not good at) but it doesn't have to be within the same school.  With the resources at my disposal, I could collaborate with other teachers across Idaho, nationally or even internationally.  On my recent trip to Costa Rica, I made a connection with a teacher who works in a one room school house.  We talked about connecting her students with my high school kids.  She is interested in building projects about the environmental issues we face in the US and how they are being handled, and comparing them to what is seen in Costa Rica.  Wouldn't it be great if we found other people in places with different climates to work with us as well?  Something like this could include math, science, history, economics, art, Spanish and English.  How’s that for networking and collaboration.