Stepping out of my "box"

I learned so very much from these past two classes. The passion with which these teachers teach and the amount of time in which they have to teach (especially the early grades) is amazing. I admire them for what they are doing and how veteran teachers have adapted to new ways of teaching. Many years ago during my continuing education class ( it was a curriculum class), the professor was different.. her teaching of curriculum was well unorthodox. She made us all feel uncomfortable until we began to feel comfortable. I learned a lot from her. The two things that stuck the most however is that the United States ( after WWI) was responsible for dental hygiene and for the public educational model throughout the world. Other countries adapted differently over the years to their changing needs. They got out of their box. They treaedt ( in most countries) teachers like rock stars and put a great emphasis on education and teacher performance. I feel as though sometimes we have not gotten out of our box, we just got tilted to the other side of it. I have gotten out  of my box by taking a class that was not designed for an Art teacher to take. I am so very happy to be out of my comfort zone and being able to put things in a new box. 

listening to others

This summer has been filled with a lot of time at the ball fields ( not local ). My son is on a travel team with boys from several different backgrounds ( educational and family). WOW when you take time to listen to the conversations you soon realize our county is not the only county with  a few problems... over half the boys hate to read and don't make any bones about how they don't care to read. The boys who are the better students and spend time with their education, have a family member who is in education or is from a family where one or both of the parents have a college education.  Children are going to imitate what the see- good or bad.