Owning It

"We live in a time of what some theorists call accelerating change. And we feel this firsthand in our profession. Each year, the group of students that enters our classrooms is vastly different from the group a year before, influenced by the latest technology and new ways of thinking and operating in society. Being a teacher today is a multi-skill, multi-faceted, multi-purpose role--a role that doesn't end when the bell rings, rather one we embody in our classrooms, in our schools and throughout our communities. This book is meant to help you identify the root causes of many challenges we face as educators, give you easy-to-implement "Strategies for Success" that work, and ignite the best in yourself and your students. In short: help you be a highly effective teacher who LOVES what you do. This book is a compilation of columns that I originally wrote for the non-profit organization Reaching At-Promise Students Association (RAPSA). Each column is both an exploration of our many roles as teachers today, and a quick-reference handbook of strategies that can be pulled out in many of the range of situations we find ourselves in daily. It's a book about "owning it"--stepping up to and claiming our myriad roles as a modern teacher, and acing each one--for the benefit of our students, our schools, our communities, our profession, and even our nation. This book is divided into three parts, one focusing on each role--our role as Classroom Leader, Colleague, and Public Professional" --