Virtually all of our area suffered through winter weather last week. A huge ice storm, which felled trees and power poles, was followed up by a snow storm a few days later. At my own little home in the country, my husband and a friend are spending yet another day today with the tractor, trying to pile up the felled trees and limbs. We were lucky as we got power back in about 78 hours. As of today, there are still over twenty-five thousand homes and businesses in Kansas without power, and some school districts will end up with two weeks of 'clock hours' to make up next semester.
Funny, isn't it? In this day and age, we still measure learning by clock hours. Sometimes I wonder if we will ever move to true measures of learning. I used to be more optimistic about that. But we don't measure performance on the job with any better methods. Educators are often measured by the time they are physically present on the job. I am, are you? Most of my colleagues find that the extra time they put in, whether at their laptops at home in the evening or on weekends, the research time they put in, the coaching, counseling, paper-grading, the think time - none of that is evaluated, compensated, or taken into consideration in any way. Every once in a while, a supervisor might tell you how much they appreciate your extra effort. But that's about it.
That's where your ownership of your own learning, and your commitment to the success of others, comes into play. Educators are among the most committed of all workers, in my opinion. When it comes down to it, most of us do what we need to do to help others learn. Period. Those who can, not only teach, they LEARN!
