Three Thoughts

1. Today is the first day of interviewing for science candidates. I'm excited for the people sitting on both sides of the table. It is always tough to sit in front of ten people and put your best foot forward, but these experiences begin to shape your foundation as a teacher and learner. Candidates get to articulate what really matters to them and showcase their passion, two beautiful things about living in a democracy. On the other side, it is exciting to meet a new teammate for the first time and think about how this person can help you grow and be value added to the school. The pressure on this side comes from knowing that you could be making a one million dollar decision. (If a teacher stays for 20-30 years, then the outlay in salary and benefits is well over a million dollars.)

2. I read this NY Times article earlier in the week about touch and its importance to teacher/student interaction.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/23/health/23mind.html?em
The article was oddly counter-intuitive. I know the power of touch. I know that it is easy to goof this up in a school setting, but I do believe that we have to try to allow the power of touch to out way our fears.

3. Malcolm Gladwell talks about how it take 10,000 hours at a minimum to become an "expert" at something. Even if you count student teaching and teachers working 10 hours a day, every day of their first years of teaching, it would almost be Christmas of a teacher's third year before kids would have someone working with them at this "expert" level. Not sure what to do with this thought, but it probably means greater amounts of hands-on experience is essential at the college level. It also traps new teachers in the struggle about how to get experience teaching, if everyone only hires people with experience.