Summer classes for teachers are gearing up, or have already launched.
The Classroom Toolkit Newsletter has evolved from a text only, update (October 2005) our current, Blog-driven Newspaper format.
Classroom Toolkit explored the world of teaching in the chaotic and bureaucratic maze of modern school district operations and management; and told teachers, "You are not the cause of the craziness or the cause of the stress you experience in your professional lives. It's the system that you work in…and the political system that the system that you work in labors under.
Classroom Toolkit has taken on the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) and exposed this piece of politician treachery for what is is, i.e., a scheme to make public schools (and the teachers who teach in the) look incompetent…so that government money can be used to fund church schools.
The Classroom Toolkit Newsletter has also taken on the myth of "Technology Integration" and we set the record straight. Classroom Toolkit revealed, "What needs to be done," "What was not done" and "Why what needs to be done won't ever be done."
But, with the publication of our Feature Article, "Newbie Teacher Bailout: Stopping the School District Talent Leak" we finished this set of exposes and we complete our "how-to-fix" series.
Classroom Toolkit is moving on.
Evolution (not the Anti-Science - Seven-Days of Creation Debate / Debacle)
Classroom Toolkit Newsletter launched "Professional Self-Development" and "Teacher Survival Strategies" departments, with the intention of migrating to a new focus. Our plan to drop the "Open Source for Education" Department was met with several request that we continue those articles. We did. Now, this issue of Classroom Toolkit marks its final resting place.
Where Classroom Toolkit is Going
Classroom Toolkit announced a move toward a Counseling and Inter / Intrapersonal focus instead of a Technology focus several months ago.
This includes a focus upon Neuro-Linguistic Programming Applications in Teaching and Learning, the Use of Suggestion, StoryTelling (Especially the Mutual Storytelling Technique, the Total Physical Response (TPR) and the Total Physical Response Storytelling Technique (TPRS).
The new focus also includes explorations of the internal self-improvement landscape:
- Personal Goals and Insights from the Perspective of Personal Talents and Skills
- Creativity and Idea Incubating
- Creative Imagination, Imagery and Visualization for Skill and Outcome Development
- Rapid Revision of Emotions and Memories with Imagery and Self-Awareness
- Intuition, Dreams and
- Habit Development and Training Automatic (Unconscious) Skills
- Concentration, Meditation and Self-Awareness
- Integration of Rapport and Genuine Interpersonal Relationships with Students
- Etc.
One person cannot maintain the old focus on political and bureaucratic system chaos and the snail-paced, technology integration glacier. One person cannot do both.
Our Rationale for Change
Classroom Toolkit is rolling out these because only a minority of teachers are interested in Technology Integration…deep down, really, heart-in-it interested.
But, in the current climate, teachers who fear for their jobs feel obligated to say that they support the Technology Integration in their classrooms. Of course, in most school districts, the lack of sufficient technology access for every student, limited network infrastructure bandwidth and unified network resources (such as online student portfolios), skimpy IT support staff and minimal support services limit technology integration anyway. School district IT Departments (and the hardware, software, infrastructure, training and professional development) are so under under staffed, under purchased, un-refreshed, under used and over taxed that any teacher that wishes can skate by without bothering to use the technology.
Besides, the upcoming budget-crunch climate appears to be heading toward further restriction on school district IT Spending…particularly in light of the fact that few documented studies have discovered a connection between technology-mediated instruction and observable, measurable student curricular outcomes.
Classroom Toolkit identified what has to happen before the technology use potential can become a reality and usable by teachers and students as a tool for learning.
Hint: Plan, spend incredibly huge sums of money on back-end programming, systems, and professional develop, trainers, huge increases in IT Staff and employment of high-priced database and network tools programmers.
In the words of the immortal bard, William Shakeup Bureaucracy, "It ain't gonna happen!"
Prepare Yourself
So, get prepared for the Classroom Toolkit move to the internal landscape of teachers…inside the psyche, soul and psychology of self-improvement, dreams and personal fulfillment…get set to become all that you can become.
Teaching is the most fabulous calling for folks that love children and who care for all the people in our society.
Since the external system is not going to change for the better and create conditions that incubate the great potential of each of our students, teachers have to take on the job. Of course, teachers must exercise caution and share the good and best of themselves under the radar, because bureaucracy abhors talent and enlightened success.
But, the evolved Classroom Toolkit will set the stage for the underground, under-the-radar skills of personal accomplishment and student motivation.
How can Classroom Toolkit make this Move?
The move to professional development based upon psychological and spiritual strategies and the capacities innate in our minds and souls can only be approached by a newsletter that is independent and un beholden to our school districts and our bureaucracy. Classroom Toolkit is such an organization.
But teachers who work in our public schools must act in an undercover manner.
Overt personal ideals and the display of spiritual values "enjoys" a strange and odd existence…teachers are valued for calling dedication and personal achievement "professional development, but "tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail" (excuse the antiquated cliche) if they attribute any of their behaviors to personal or spiritual ideals.
Classroom Toolkit has established independence…from the time that we decided that we would "Tell it like it is," and for go any chance of working for school districts on lucrative consulting and grant writing projects. There was no one on the landscape that was confronting the issues of bureaucratic bumbling, teacher stress and the need for real educational funding (instead of the pretend funding that we now "enjoy."
But in evolving , Classroom Toolkit will explore an area that no one is traveling.
So, join us.
But, if you do not like the path that Classroom Toolkit is taking, there is a "one-click, unsubscribe link at the bottom of every newsletter.
We hope that you decide to stay with us. The journey is worth the learning. Your students are worth the self-improvement that you will make as your complete your journey to personal self-discovery. And you are worth the time and effort that you will need to invest.
We hope that you decide to continue on this journey with us.
Special Bonus Link:
Here is the kind of material that you can expect with Classroom Toolkit's new focus
Millionaire Mindset eBook (248 pages)
Millionaire Mindset WorkBook
