tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-882184034075101362024-03-12T20:27:19.756-04:00Walking to SchoolArguing for a teaching profession that would transform education, restore our goal of a free and meaningful public education for the next generation, and support the ideals of our democracy.Mary Tedrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07568681356512308199noreply@blogger.comBlogger177125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88218403407510136.post-86343517883360743122018-01-08T16:52:00.005-05:002018-01-08T16:52:54.152-05:00Walking into the Unknown...Switching platforms.Its been quiet here....and I have moved.
Since my last posting in February, 2016 I dropped blogging in favor of several projects.
First, I retired from teaching in the public schools in May of 2016--so I am no longer walking to school. Retirement frees me to focus on the work of the Shenandoah Valley Writing Project and the next phase of my ongoing edification.
It also provided the much Mary Tedrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07568681356512308199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88218403407510136.post-91705749532618607022016-02-07T12:52:00.002-05:002016-02-07T12:54:58.570-05:00Poisoning the WellThere was a time when I resisted conspiracy theories-"black helicopters" if you will--as the nonsense of a delusional, paranoid public that has watched far too many movies.
But the recent news out of Flint, along with other nefarious plans to profit off of children, have me thinking the worst.
As details emerge, the state level oversight of Flint has been astounding in its callous Mary Tedrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07568681356512308199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88218403407510136.post-50824612773757916392016-01-27T11:32:00.002-05:002016-01-27T11:44:59.196-05:00Please, no more "drill, baby, drill" Aesop's fables were all the rage when I was in elementary school. I don't really know if students read these any more, but I loved them. The stories were short and the meaning was clear--and apparently memorable. Throughout my life I have remembered one which particularly resonated with me: "The Wind and the Sun."
In an argument to determine who is Mary Tedrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07568681356512308199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88218403407510136.post-29199923487708793922015-12-30T15:24:00.002-05:002015-12-30T15:32:14.837-05:00Literacy is EmpathyThe teaching of reading and writing goes far beyond imparting two very useful and necessary skills. Reading, of course, is basic to survival in our modern world (think: leases, contracts, small print on the credit card...) Writing, not nearly as much, but is clearly the skill that opens doors.
Not only is literacy the way up and out of poverty, developing these skills improves the world. Yes. Mary Tedrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07568681356512308199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88218403407510136.post-26588238591343305662015-08-23T11:33:00.003-04:002015-08-23T11:35:31.680-04:00Quoting Oliver SacksI'm nearly finished with the Oliver Sacks autobiography On the Move. With an interest in writing and the brain, Sacks has been a great companion over the years. In the book he describes both his medical life and his life of writing.
I will miss him when he's gone. His life is nearing its end, as he has publicly announced and chronicled in the New York Times Op-Ed section here, Mary Tedrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07568681356512308199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88218403407510136.post-69865411453938858172015-06-27T13:55:00.000-04:002015-06-27T14:00:49.635-04:00Moving from manipulation to motivation
So, been up to my eyeballs in research for a graduate
course: Foundations of Teacher
Leadership. The reading is
interesting, but the writing and synthesis eat up all my spare(?) time.
Still, can’t help but tie the reading to my professional
life since, well, it’s all about my professional life.
The fun part of research—I think—is following the trail of
resources from one study to Mary Tedrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07568681356512308199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88218403407510136.post-23061340645027544412015-04-26T12:48:00.000-04:002015-04-26T13:01:08.374-04:00Real Professional ConversationsI'll admit I was not too keen to get up on a Saturday morning in April at my usual "work hour," but I did hoist myself out of bed to meet with five other colleagues of the Shenandoah Valley Writing Project at 9 a.m. Our meeting place was about a 50 minute drive from home.
Why would anyone do that?
Ah. The morning was such a respite from the usual meetings and grind that it truly hasMary Tedrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07568681356512308199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88218403407510136.post-90912346888407557282015-03-01T11:31:00.001-05:002015-03-01T11:38:08.723-05:00On Teacher Leadership vs teacher leadershipLike a sore tooth I have been tonguing the problem of Teacher Leadership for about a year now. It is a worrisome thing.
It started last year when Arne Duncan launched his Teach to Lead program at the now annual Teaching and Learning Conference in Washington, D.C. (I plan to visit the education luminaries again this March 14. Hate to miss out on all the noshing but feel a bit Mary Tedrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07568681356512308199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88218403407510136.post-9427836839704401182015-01-21T10:48:00.000-05:002015-01-26T13:13:41.456-05:00Not your Public School Anymore...
January 21 federal HELP (Heath, Education, Labor, and
Pension Committee) hearings begin on the federal No Child Left Behind law, (NCLB) which has been controlling the
work of public schools for twelve years. View hearing here.http://www.c-span.org/video/?323903-1/hearing-federal-education-policy-reform&live
Even if Mary Tedrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07568681356512308199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88218403407510136.post-61229874012395171742015-01-04T12:01:00.000-05:002015-01-04T12:02:28.925-05:00More Joy...Less Stress
"Be kind, for everyone you meet is carrying a great burden." Philo, 1st Century.
"I grow old. I grow old. I will wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled." T.S.Eliot
School is back in session tomorrow. With one semester ended and new courses beginning, it is deja vu all over again: first day of school.
The last post described my schizophrenic existentialism.  Mary Tedrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07568681356512308199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88218403407510136.post-55113057622565176802014-12-28T11:23:00.000-05:002014-12-28T11:24:50.358-05:00Schizophrenia of TeachingThe title of this blog came to me this morning after reflecting on the semester just ended. This year, semester-long courses ended before the holiday break and new students and courses arrive January 5. It is a good time to review.
Part of the ruminations included moments of deep despair, survived only by deliberately ignoring the larger system within which I labor and focusing on the details Mary Tedrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07568681356512308199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88218403407510136.post-22847487636159808902014-12-01T19:33:00.001-05:002014-12-13T09:48:33.233-05:00UVA and Our Heart of Darkness
All of Europe contributed to the making of Kurtz...
If you think our country isn't currently sinking in a fetid sea of corruption born of greed, inequality, and a slavish adherence to market forces, think again. Read the recent account in The Rolling Stone of the brutal, animalistic, predatory rape of a freshman woman on the campus of The University of Virginia. The scales will fall from your Mary Tedrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07568681356512308199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88218403407510136.post-420743175379154322014-09-06T09:54:00.002-04:002014-09-07T16:07:07.700-04:00There are no magic bulletsThis week my brilliant seniors led their own discussion on the epic tale of Beowulf. It was their first Harkness and they performed phenomenally, as all students will when given the guidance and opportunity to follow their thinking around a text.
At one point both of the classes arrived at a similar conclusion--just one of many they circled around until they were able to summarize their Mary Tedrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07568681356512308199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88218403407510136.post-71504171653061544952014-07-15T21:22:00.001-04:002014-07-15T21:35:36.989-04:00NEA Representative Assembly and the Death of DemocracyEarlier this month I served as a first-time delegate to the NEA representative assembly.
As a fan of democracy, it was an amazing process to behold.
Over 7,000 teachers and education support personnel filled the convention hall and were all more-or-less on equal footing: permitted to enter into debate and then vote on over 100 New Business Items (NBI).
All items arise from the membership Mary Tedrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07568681356512308199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88218403407510136.post-2759874520644824802014-05-18T10:18:00.000-04:002014-05-18T11:01:14.208-04:00Please stop appreciating meThis sounds crass and rude, but nothing would please me more than an end to the need for a week long festival of teacher appreciation.
Let's face it. As a 58-year-old adult with twenty-five years of classroom experience, beginning in 1978, I do not need another piece of cake or pen that says "We love our teachers" to indicate that the work is important. In some ways the recognition is Mary Tedrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07568681356512308199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88218403407510136.post-86321735985601567772014-04-27T10:27:00.000-04:002014-04-27T11:04:15.873-04:00In the Belly of the OligarchyCorporate Oligarchy, according to Wikipedia:
Corporate oligarchy is a form of power, governmental or operational, where such power effectively rests with a small, elite group of inside individuals, sometimes from a small group of educational institutions, or influential economic entities or devices, such as banks, commercial entities, lobbyists that act in complicity with, or at the whim of theMary Tedrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07568681356512308199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88218403407510136.post-16649201336147516492014-03-30T13:39:00.003-04:002014-03-30T13:42:02.343-04:00Addendum: Another MeetingBill HJ 1has passed both houses in the Virginia Legislature. This bill is titled "Teacher Career Ladder program; report. Requests the Department of Education to study and make recommendations regarding the feasibility of a Teacher Career Ladder program in the Commonwealth.
This legislation had wide approval with 97 voting yes in the House with one Nay vote and a voice vote in the Mary Tedrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07568681356512308199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88218403407510136.post-38467068062362090432014-03-23T12:11:00.003-04:002014-03-23T12:21:11.152-04:00Stepping on Toes or Time to get RudeMy husband tells me I'm cynical. Maybe so.
But I can't help the feeling that Arne Duncan's speech to the Teaching and Learning Conference on Friday, March 14 (after the press corps has packed up and gone home for the weekend) was designed to mollify a group of increasingly loud teachers.
He called, in effect, for a meeting where teacher leadership would be discussed. (There.  Mary Tedrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07568681356512308199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88218403407510136.post-52987745558069020252014-03-17T13:58:00.000-04:002014-03-17T14:19:29.241-04:00And now from Arne Duncan....at the T&L
On Friday afternoon of the Teaching & Learning 2014 conference, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan addressed the teachers before a nearly full room.
As part of his commentary he announced a new partnership with NBPTS. Here is what Duncan foresees as his plan:
We will convene a group of teachers, principals, state Chiefs, teachers' groups and district leaders, among others. &Mary Tedrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07568681356512308199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88218403407510136.post-43242278969377947322014-03-16T10:18:00.001-04:002014-03-16T11:19:33.278-04:00Teaching and Learning from Bill Gates in the Nation's CapitolMaybe it was Doris Kearns Goodwin's passionate admiration of son Michael Goodwin's Rivers and Revolutions instructional program that brought the image to mind, but this weekend's inaugural Teaching and Learning Conference at the Washington D.C. Convention Center presented by NBPTS felt like standing at the confluence of two rivers.
Or maybe one river and one tributary swollen with Mary Tedrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07568681356512308199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88218403407510136.post-17112382236143846762014-01-23T11:25:00.000-05:002014-01-23T11:25:07.066-05:00Educate with Trust in Mind
In the dead of winter, revisiting the Summer Institute.
July, 2013
I have just walked the promenade on the east side of the
Johnson Center on the George Mason campus.
Where is the crepe myrtle, I wonder?
Ah, there, behind the maples which now shade the entire walkway.
Fourteen years ago these maples were mere afterthought, and
the crepe myrtle stunned the brickMary Tedrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07568681356512308199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88218403407510136.post-64421293001810051282014-01-21T12:24:00.000-05:002014-01-21T16:07:00.653-05:00Poverty Leaves Every Child Behind
"What Happens When the Poor Receive a Stipend?" ran on the New York Times Opinion page on January 18. It reveals a study that occurred when the Cherokee Nation in North Carolina decided to distribute the largess of their new gambling casino to every family, no strings attached. Luckily, 1,460 children in the group had already been under a study by Professor Jane Costello of Mary Tedrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07568681356512308199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88218403407510136.post-91953811938396363092014-01-04T10:16:00.001-05:002014-01-04T18:02:54.944-05:00Talking Education with Non-educatorsIt is easy to remain insular during the school year as any private life is consumed by the crowded school schedule.
It is school, school, school without a let up (nights, days, weekends) until everything comes to a screeching halt at the holidays.
Often I feel that I have emerged into another world when mingling with peers who have only tangentially thought about public schooling as it affectsMary Tedrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07568681356512308199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88218403407510136.post-78099098824632702732013-10-27T11:10:00.000-04:002013-10-27T11:12:42.890-04:00Begging for a "distinguished" Education that will "first do no harm"
*Remarks upon recognition as the 2013 Distinguished Alumni for Professional Achievement at Shenandoah University Alumni Weekend:
It is with deep appreciation and humility that I thank you
for this recognition.
Thank you Dr. Fitzsimmons, members of the awards committee,
faculty members who are present and especially Dr. Mary Bowser who advised me
through my graduate work at Mary Tedrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07568681356512308199noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88218403407510136.post-69034538175607168652013-09-15T10:06:00.002-04:002013-09-15T11:15:13.817-04:00Watching "Teach"I set aside two hours on Friday evening, September 6 to watch the CBS movie "Teach." (I wonder if anyone besides a teacher watched this mea culpa by Davis Guggenheim, atonement for his teacher-bashing "Waiting for Superman"?)
It was as much a romantic whitewash of the teaching profession as Waiting for Superman was a scorched-earth review of public schooling. (Just look at the image that Mary Tedrowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07568681356512308199noreply@blogger.com0