Education Notes: Sadly, The Reflective Educator is Leaving NYC: We Wish Him the Best

Since I first started monitoring An Urban Teacher's Education blog early in the school year, I have gained enormous respect for The Reflective Educator. I have run into him a few times at various events but if you read his blog you know he is one busy guy.

One of my hopes was to entice him into the work of GEM - he brings so many desperately needed skills to the table. That he is also a UFT chapter leader was gravy. But, sadly, that was not to be as he is moving back to Seattle. He will still keep blogging and probably stay in education.

There is a war going on with the enormous funding the ed deformers have behind them and we desperately need his articulate voice.

There are probably lots of lessons in his story along the lines of "can one take on such a giant role in a school knowing full well that it is trying to fill a pond with an eye dropper?" Now if the DOE actually supported teachers like him, the story might have been different.

Wishing him the best.

Blowback on NY Times front page sob story attack on LIFO yesterday

On another front there was some serious anger especially on the part of the new, young idealistic teachers who support LIFO - these people are never featured. Liza Campbell and others wrote to the reporter and we'll follow developments. Will be see Liza featured on the front page with a story that links to GEM and NYCORE like the Times linked to E4E? By the way, see another great piece at Gotham Community (In The Face Of Adversity, An Evening Of Celebration) by Liza - also a 3rd year teacher up for tenure - and what guts to be out there fighting Wal/Black/BloomKlein instead of sucking up like E4E.

I gotta say- it's meeting people like the Reflective Educator and Liza Campbell who keep me from walking off into the sunset.

See our report on the Times story yesterday