My Orders to Report For Duty. A New Voyager Story? The Imaginarium.

Hello Troubadours!
Still hiding away at my Arizona retreat.  I'll be back in Utah on Monday and have orders to report to work on Tuesday.  Teachers are being called in earlier and earlier.  We had to report for duty on August 17 a couple years ago; now it's the 11th. If this trend continues, they'll soon be ordering us to battle stations at the end of July!  
These early teacher days are usually the same thing every year - new teaching techniques, results of state tests, new curriculum dictated by the state office to add to the bloated curriculum we can't possibly get through in nine months. Nobody up the command structure understands that everything added to the curriculum means something already in the curriculum must be ignored or quickly brushed over with fingers crossed it doesn't appear on the state test. There are only 180 days of school. 
The latest educational trend is individualized curriculum. Teachers are asked to adjust their teaching style and curriculum to meet the needs of individual students.  In a class of 26, you'll generally find four or five learning styles and a similar number of ability levels. I teach several subjects a day. That's a lot of daily preparation if I individualized everything.  
Most teachers realize it isn't possible. My philosophy is to individualize when I can, and when I can't - prepare good attention grabbing lessons, teach to the middle level, and adjust the assignment as necessary to meet different learning styles.  
Teaching isn't for wimps.

Great Stuff Here!

I finished this book today.  880 pages vividly describing the naval battles between Britain and Germany in World War I with ideas for new Voyager missions in every chapter.  The Battle of Jutland would be particularly interesting and challenging.  Hmmmmm, time to outline a new mission in the new Voyager.

Mr. W. 



The Imaginarium