September+10th

This idea of being a seductive teacher is particularly relevant in times of crisis because the world-and the people in it-often feel unsafe. There is crisis in the homes, in the streets, and in the world. Within the secondary classroom, students are cognizant of what is happening in the world-particularly as the media delivers it. Teenagers are experiencing the same hormonal and emotional angst of the generations who came before them, yet now they must also confront the harsh reality of this ever-changing world. Wolfe did accurately identify the fact that despite every generation having his/her share of difficulty, the current generation is confronted by what seems to be even more uncertainty than ever before. Maybe that uncertainty is brought into clearer focus because we have become such a global community, which challenges our youth to confront both the tragedies of their communities and the communities around the world. Again, it seems necessary to find balance so that at the very least, the classroom is a place of exploration, introspection, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th chances I agree about chances, but with a healthy dose of caution...every behavior has a function...repeated behavior must be analyzed to see what the student needs or is avoiding...could be a cry for academic, emotional or social help. Ok, the BED teacher in me took over! , and safety. (Crisis can be personal or public.)

Another point of particular interest deals with Tchudi and Mitchell's discussion about assessments. Often when working with novice teachers, we would discuss assessment and novice teachers were unclear about how to assess other than upon completion of their lesson. Unfortunately, if you wait until the end of a unit to assess student learning, you may find that you left your students behind and then might be certain where you left them! Assessment doesn't have to be formal or traditional; it just has to happen often and throughout student learning. You TELL it, SISTER! I believe that pre-service teachers have inadequate opportunity to employ and practice the actual instructional-assessment cycle...oh yes, every lesson plan they write HAS some required assessment component (RUBRIC : < /)...but when are they actually observed enacting formative and summative assessment? Is this a part of the supervising teachers' observation protocols? Can these pre-service enact "just in time" formative assessments, on the fly, during the lesson? Do pre-service teachers actually complete the entire summative assessment cycle including item analysis, re-teaching and re-assessment? I digress!

~Meg

In Wolfe & Antinarella's Chapter 2, they surmise that education reform has equated to the rehashing of worn out policies and initiatives. For example, NCLB, really came out of the Johnson administration's Put Reading First...same idea different spin and more penalties for poor schools. This is not surprising though, as we often view how school should be through rose colored glasses that reflect how school was for us: a utopia where the teacher sits upon a pedestal and the students work fervrantly to please and be good students. (isn't it ironic that so many people think that the educational "utopia" is founded on the idea of a teacher as the "feeder" of information and the students simply as "digesters"?)

The reality is that we are a nation that faces horrendous violence, political and economic crisisies; all born from a decline in national morals and ethics. These societal factors that now describe much of our nation leave students apathetic about the future and their place in it. In short violence and illiteracy plague our students, as Wolfe & Antinarella point out. As a result, schools, at once, represent a safe haven and the "unknown". Therefore teacher leaders must emphasize the need to build "community of care". A agree! For some of our students, school is the only place where they experience this "community of care.

Therefore, according to Tchudi & Mitchell, EVERYTHING in the classroom must speak to safety...from color to posters to physical arrangement. In my own teaching experience, my classroom was extremely clean, full of color, multicultural posters, bean bags, rugs and variety of seating arrangements to choose from. Tchuldi & Mitchell really push their agenda of creating Ground Rules where students have ownership. Many of the suggestions in pages 139-148 really embody many of Baldrigde-Quality Tools & Total Quality Management: A Teacher Handbook by McClanahan and Wicks (Ground Rules, 5 WHYS, Affinity Diagrams, Light Voting, Inter-relational Diagrams, etc.) Many of the basic premises found in Chapter 4 relating to classroom culture, appear very similar to Stephen R. Covey's //The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People//, where values of "synergy" and "begin with the end in mind" can be used to guide student’s academic and social behavior in the classroom. Teacher leaders who intentionally instill these ideals into their students may help to lead them in a progression from teacher-dependence to group interdependence. Quite honestly instilling group interdependence as opposed to teacher-dependence should be the very foundation of education!

~ Lisa