I've Been Nominated for Education Blogger of the Year -- Thank You Huffington Post!

I started writing for the Huffington Post in March of last year, in advance of the release of my rookie-teacher-in-the-Bronx memoir, The Great Expectations School. Since then it's been my great pleasure to help to stir the pot about issues affecting students, teachers, and families in America. And hey, now my HuffPo scribblings have been nominated for an award!

If the spirit moves you, vote here: http://edin08.com/bloggersummit/bloggerpoll.aspx

Thank you Huffington Post readers!

Comments

[momof2girls]

Congrats! If all teachers, and for that matter politicians, had your passion and commitment I don't think we'd have the need for so much discussion on this topic...we'd have more students on the path to success.

[ellen63]

momof2girls: Contrary to your thinking, a discussion of education is hugely important. Sadly, this does not seem to be the case. On other topics, there are pages of posts. On this subject, there are exactly four, including the two of mine.. Teachers, present and past, need to weigh in to address the top-down approach of politicians and administrators dictating policy without sufficient
feedback from the people (teachers) who are in the trenches. The circumstance of my leaving the profession does not negate or nullify my thinking about the all-important issue of how we educate
future generations. Patricia Burstein

[ellen63]

Also, momof2girls, isn't the debate about how to best serve our students the whole point of Dan Brown's blog? Patricia Burstein

[ellen63]

Discussion is always useful, momof2girls. There is not enough of it. Witness all the pages of internet posts on this site on other topics while there are only a very few responses to the news of Dan Brown's selection as Education Blogger. Moreover, with a top-down approach to education, with politicians and administrators dictating policy, it becomes imperative that we hear from those people in the trenches: teachers. The circumstance of my leaving the profession as a full time teacher--I still sub--does not nullify my interest in exploring ways to improve the education of future generations. Patricia Burstein

[ellen63]

The four most difficult words I learned to speak as a teacher: " Because I said so." Classoom management is a crucial part of teaching. Without it little or no learning is possible. Children need rules to locate themselves in the world. Confession: I was positively lacking in this skill. Then again, it is hard to tell a student, who doesn't have lunch until eighth period, in late afternoon, to put away his or her peanut butter sandwich at noon. Or to punish a students for missing a test because there was so much fighting at home the night before that they couldn't study. I trust and hope your blog will include some classroom management wisdom. Patricia Burstein

[ellen63]

Congratulations. I hope your blog will improve the lot of today's inner city students. I left reporting for a few years to teach--as a New York City Fellow--students from disadvantaged backgrounds. It was the hardest job I ever did. Too often I felt like I was talking into the wind to all too many students, with little or no engagement with their education, reading at a fourth grade level (Mayor Bloomberg is to be commended for abolishing the "social promotions" policy) and with very rude mouths. Still, I am rooting for my students, and I believe many of them are as intuitively bright as any children of privilege. Burdened by broken families and economic duress, they brought to class what they had at home: unruly behaviors and perturbed schedules, despite so many single mothers working two and three jobs and so wanting their children to flourish. Indeed, it is a tall order to move these students past the inhibitions of race and poverty, and I celebrate teachers, underpaid and unappreciated, for continuing to try day in and day out. Teaching is such an important and difficult job. You are responsible on a daily basis for all these young lives. It takes an emotional toll, all the worrying about these kids, and I ran out of steam, so to speak. I would add that education courses, a big industry, are fairly useless; the jargon suffocates any and all ideas. Patricia Burstein

[MichaelTempler]

Great perhaps you can explain why 50% of the kids aren't graduating from High School

and 75% didn't in Detroit