After 20 years of teaching at Brookfield Central, I am saying goodbye. Although I spent the majority of that time in the physics classroom alongside my learners. That changed for my last 18 weeks. I ended up in a place similar to where I started, teaching chemistry and biology. So, rather than dealing with juniors and seniors at the end of their high school careers, I was in classrooms with freshmen and sophomores still trying to find their place. At the same time, I was learning and teaching a set curriculum I hadn't taught in over a decade. So, we were learning. But, of course, I already knew the content. The point of this post is to take a step back, take in, and share the gratitude from the last students I had in my 20 years at Brookfield Central High School through the cards and notes they made for me on my last day with them. I don't take many yay me moments. But after 20 years, I think I'll soak this one in.
I finished the audiobook of Daniel Pink’s Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us yesterday. Today, I had to go to the library to pick up a physical copy to reread some sections. This book is definitely a read - steep - reread. There is a lot to digest and act upon. The ideas Dan Pink brings out are deeply tied into the movement towards personalizing learning in our classrooms. Rather than recap the entire book, I would recommend you take the time to listen to his powerful TED talk where he lays out the fundamentals of his argument. Seriously, if you haven’t watched it or read his book, you owe it to yourself to watch it (also, read the book). The focus of the talk is from a business perspective. But, I imagine you can think of how it relates to your classroom as you watch. What Pink puts forth with a slew of evidence is that There is a gap between what science knows and what institutions do. T...