Education Blog
The most important blog post ever.
Excuse the hyperbole in the title, but I needed your attention.
It’s that time of year. Schools are letting out for the summer. Graduations are occurring. Teachers are in their classrooms wrapping things up before leaving for the summer. But something even more important should be happening:
ALL PARENTS AND ALL STUDENTS SHOULD BE WRITING THANK YOU NOTES TO THEIR TEACHERS!
With this post, I’d like to start a national movement of people taking the time to write (handwritten preferred) letters to all the educators who just spent another year of their lives dedicated to our children.
The perks of teaching aren’t much. Some chocolates during the holidays. Maybe a card or two on birthdays. But a flood of thank you cards at the end of the year is about the greatest gift we can give to our educators.
Read More >>Teachers. Seriously. Have a great summer.
Okay. I know. I know that the whole “3 months off” thing is a bit of myth. First of all, with wrapping up the year and then going to fall workshops, it’s not even close to 3 months. Second, teachers work in the summer. Maybe a second job, maybe doing curriculum planning. I know that most of you are not going to be sitting in a hammock drinking lemonade everyday for the next 10 weeks.
But seriously. It’s summer. Let’s not kid ourselves here. It’s wonderful.
The new rhythms of slower days. Quiet. Reading for pleasure. Sleep. Fishing. You know. SUMMER!
Personally, I’m in my third year of no longer having “summer vacation.” I lived 29 consecutive years with an academic calendar. My internal clock is still set to a school year. But on Monday morning, the first day my two boys start their summer, I’m heading to work.
When I taught, the first few weeks of summer were always strange. They were marked by what was a sort of annual two week depression.
Read More >>Can you please stop growing up?!
Happy birthday Sam.
You’re turning nine today. Nine. How did that happen? This morning you walked down to the end of the block to hop on the bus and I saw you standing there with your little brother and all of a sudden the world doesn’t dwarf you like it used to.
I remember the day you started kindergarten. Parents had told your mom and me that the first few years of your life would sort of stroll by but once you started school the years would fly. And now you’re finishing third grade and I’m having a hard time. Your little brother is finishing daycare and next year he’ll be getting on the bus with you too. And it’s happening too fast.
You know I’m an emotional dad. It’s the way I’m wired. I’m particularly bad at transitions. When a vacation is ending, I have a hard time enjoying the last day (or two) because I’m pre-sad that the vacation is ending. I’m fighting that with you right now. I don’t want to be halfway through you living in our house.
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How would you sell the context of your job?
While digging around my delicious account, I came across this article from The Chronicle of Philanthropy that I had saved last fall. Re-reading this piece, I thought about many of the things Nathan writes in his book and in this blog. The article suggests that non-profits emphasize their “context”—their mission, how their work is important—when they recruit new employees, as the “millenial” college graduate is more likely to follow his or her passions when choosing a career path.
Read More >>Nonprofit groups should sell not just the job to potential employees but also the “context of the job,” says the report from the Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies, in Baltimore.
Group Read in MInneapolis
As the end of the school year approaches, so too ends the first year of my book being out in the world. One of the amazing things about writing a book is that you send it out into the universe and hope good things come out of it, even when you’re not sure what exactly is going on yourself! Hmm… sort of how I feel about my two sons.
I’ve had the privilege over the year, however, to participate with one group of teachers at Roosevelt High School here in Minneapolis who chose to use the book as their group read for a year’s worth of conversation. I’ve gone over and met with them a few times to listen in on their discussions, hear how the book is going, and see what advice I might be able to offer as they work toward a supportive workplace and a rewarding personal experience.
It has been wonderful to see good conversation, difficult questions, and thoughtful solutions come out of the process.
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As a former teacher, I’ve seen first-hand the issues that educators face every day. I hope that by writing this blog, I can share some insights (as well as a sense of humor) on teacher job satisfaction and school climate, and spark conversation about how to improve our schools.
—Nathan Eklund, M.Ed
Senior Education Consultant
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