Decision
As previously mentioned, I’ve been trying to decide what to do next year. Now I’ve made up my mind: I’m leaving the school I’ve been with for the past two years and going to a large (and functional) district school. This was a difficult choice in many ways, and I’ve now got a whole matrix of decision-making factors and weights to justify what I’m doing. But really, this was an emotional decision. The school I’ve been at just felt so bad, so awful, and this new school felt fresh and good when I first walked on campus to interview. I’m sure there are downsides and drawbacks, and that I’ll be complaining about those soon enough. But for now, I’m happy with my choice.
I’ll be teaching computer science (non-AP) instead of math, and teaching in the city instead of the outlying wastelands, so I will be living in a completely different world from the one I’ve written about for the past two years. It feels right to me that these 200 some-odd posts and the comments that go with them are their own entity, so this will be the end of this blog. I may start a new one, but it probably won’t be anonymous. If I’m teaching students about computers, I want to be sure we’re doing stuff as a class that involves reading and writing online. That will probably take up all my blogging time, and I’ll want to do it using my real name. Anyone interested in keeping in touch, leave a comment and I’ll point you over at whatever happens next. It’s been a good ride, and I’ve both learned and grown from interacting with people through this blog. Thank you all for being here for me and for each other. Keep fighting the good fight.
I’ll miss reading this blog, best wishes on your new job!
Comment by G — June 18, 2007 @ 8:30 pm
Cool choice. Drop me a line with your new blog sometime.
Comment by Dan Meyer — June 18, 2007 @ 8:41 pm
Best of luck. Let me know where you go. And, it sounds like a solid decision. Hope it goes well.
Comment by Jonathan — June 18, 2007 @ 8:52 pm
Let me know if/when you start blogging again. Also let me know if I can help at all with what you are teaching in computer science. I did that for years and it is my job to help HS CS teachers when/how I can.
Comment by Alfred Thompson — June 18, 2007 @ 9:09 pm
Good luck… teaching is an emotional job, and so decisions where to teach should be emotionally based too! Or something. Let me know when you get a new blog up, and hopefully we can still talk math from time to time. Have a relaxing summer.
Comment by Dan Greene — June 18, 2007 @ 10:58 pm
Go with your gut. Send me a link to whatever you do next.
Comment by tony lucchese — June 19, 2007 @ 4:14 am
Congratulations, and best wishes in the new job. You can’t help but being emotional despite the challenges with the charter school. I felt the same way when I left my first college teaching gig, leaving a highly dysfunctional liberal arts college to join a highly functional one. You’ll find much of the same disappointments at the new place, but this time at least you’ll have a lot more context to work with.
Do keep me up to speed if you start blogging again. It would be interesting to hear your experiences in teaching CS at the high school level, because that’s something that you don’t see very often and the quality of high school CS classes is, er, mixed.
Comment by Robert — June 19, 2007 @ 7:23 am
I want to know about your new blog too.
Comment by H. — June 19, 2007 @ 7:34 am
Congrats on the decision. This sounded to me like your best option. Please do put me on the list for your new blog.
Comment by Rob — June 19, 2007 @ 6:13 pm
We did a program where I teach (a community college) called “Teachers Teaching Teachers” where we shared what worked and what didn’t work. It was, overall, a great program. I find other teachers’ work is one of my best sources of inspiration. So please let us know where you land, and thanks.
Comment by V Austin — June 19, 2007 @ 9:42 pm
Your blog has been a great read, and I’ve really enjoyed it. Kudos to you for all your efforts, it’s inspiring. And yea, I’d love to hear what you get up to with your next blog.
Comment by Knoblauch — August 5, 2007 @ 6:04 pm
Please send me your new site.
I’ll like to link to it from MenTeach.org.
Best of luck with your job change.
Comment by BGNelson — November 12, 2007 @ 10:44 am
Just came across this site. very interesting thoughts and comments. Please send me your new site. One thought on the frustration. The changes we make in others are sometimes invisible to ourselves at the time. Many times they are not immediate. Though I do not teach in the classroom setting, I have found that those students who I do not believe are getting anything of what I am trying to get across, are absorbing things and using the information later on their own.
Not very rewarding for me instantly, but you have to know that you are having an impact or you just go nuts!
Comment by Joe Van Deuren — November 20, 2007 @ 3:48 am