Reflecting....

I feel like I have been nothing but a public teacher this quarter. Each lesson I have written or taught has been watched and/or evaluated by my cooperating teacher, my field instructor, or a professor. I have been even more public by blogging about my successes, my failings, my joys and my frustrations. I have shared articles or other blogs that have caused me to pause and think about the profession and have discussed with other cohort members issues that have them thinking as well.

I think that the best post that demonstrates my growth as a public teacher is the "Wall of Policy" post I made a few weeks back. I quoted a part of John Spencer's blog that really had me thinking about what we can do, as teachers, to combat a constant wall of bad policy, created by people who don't know teaching and don't know students. We talked a lot about this in class, but as student teaching comes closer and closer, it is suddenly becoming a more real issue to me. What can I do, as a student teacher and then as a first year teacher, to combat this wall of policy? I know it won't be much at first, but I also know that I cannot stand aside and wait to get my tenure before I make some changes.