Starting Something New

We live in an era of a million ideas. Everybody, it seems, has the "next best thing" for education. They know what we need to fix it! To get our kids to read! Write! Do Math! Behave! Just buy this product...go to this workshop...read this book or listen to this expert. And you -- that's right, you! -- will finally be a successful teacher.

What it sometimes reminds me of!

Does that sound bitter? It's not meant to...well, maybe a little. I've been a teacher for 10 years, and have taught everything from high school journalism to kindergarten GT students. I've been to dozens of seminars, read loads of educational books, magazines and blogs, and you know something -- I have become a better teacher. Not because of one program, or one product, or one dynamite author. But because I've listened, I've learned, I've taken pieces of the ideas they have and mixed them with what I myself have experienced in my classrooms.

I've remixed.

So now, with this blog, I want to add my thoughts to our million-idea mix. I'm not wildly creative -- I wish I was, but those groundbreaking, world-changing ideas are not mine. (For some amazing ones, check out my friend Cristina's blog @ http://thinkappythoughts.blogspot.com/)

Instead, I'll share how I've taken some of the old, mixed it with some of the new, and come up with some pretty cool projects for my current batch of kiddoes. Have great ideas of your own? Send 'em my way -- and we'll keep learning together.