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CAT Tracks for August 5, 2010
BORN AGAIN TEACHER...NOT! |
My magical mystical tour leads me to India today...in the footsteps of The Beatles, specifically the late George Harrison.
As fans will recall, The Beatles fell under the influence of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi for a short while...practicing and popularizing TM - Transcendental Meditation.
Of the Fab Four, George was the most affected, religiously and musically, prompting him to learn to play the sitar.
As I was reading the 26-page "draft of professional teaching standards" linked in the article below, my blood ran cold. My immediate religious experience was to utter a sincere "Thank you, God...for walking me through the valley of Cairo School District to lie down in the green pastures of retirement."
My next thought was a mixture of the past and the future...that if I had it to do all over again, no way would I be a teacher...not in this day and age!
And that's what made me think of George Harrison and some of his solo musical efforts that had religious overtones...specifically reincarnation.
One particular song began to play in my head...
Lyrics & Music by George Harrison (1973)
Give me love
Give me love
Give me peace on earth
Give me light
Give me life
Keep me free from birth
Give me hope
Help me cope, with this heavy load
Trying to, touch and reach you with,
Heart and soul
Om m m m m m m m m m m m m m
M m m my lord . . .
Please take hold of my hand,
that I might understand you
Won't you please
Oh won't you
(Repeat Chorus...Thrice)
Om m m m m m m m m m m m m m
M m m my lord . . .
If you missed it...
The line from the song..."Keep me free from birth"...George praying that his soul NOT take birth again in another body in the continuous cycle of birth, death, and reincarnation...rather that he be finally liberated and have an eternal spiritual body.
Well, I haven't ever given much actual thought to reincarnation.
But...
My Sweet Lord...
If there is such a thing, please...anything, I mean, ANYTHING but a teacher!
From Education Week...
CCSSO Unveils Draft Teaching Standards
By Stephen Sawchuk
A group convened by the Council of Chief State School Officers recently released a draft of professional teaching standards that outline what practices, essential knowledge, and dispositions teachers should embody to help students succeed. (CAT Tracks Editor's Note: Just so you don't get lost in the web pages and links, here is the link to the 26-page "professional teaching standards".)
Developed by the CCSSO's Interstate Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium, the new set of standards contains some notable differences from the prior set, released in 1992. For one, the standards are no longer limited to beginning teachers; instead, they're meant to guide teachers at all levels of their career, with more-experienced teachers exhibiting the practices in more-sophisticated ways.
In addition, the standards put more emphasis on teachers' ability to use assessment data to support instruction, to address cultural and linguistic diversity in the student population, and to harness technology as a tool to support learning.
The authors also wove interdisciplinary themes of communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and technology use — sometimes called the 21st-century skills — throughout the standards.
Of course, as with the common academic-content standards movement, there's a huge difference between adopting standards and actually creating the infrastructure to translate them into action. Will states and districts align induction supports, evaluation systems, and professional development to these guidelines?
The standards are open for public commentary until Oct. 15. Feel free to post your thoughts on the InTASC standards here, too.
