Julie Rocks and...Forcing IT!

Julie,

Thanks for kicking us off awesomely. and thanks for being a great colleague. I'll have a reply to your post soon, but, first I'll share what I started writing tonight on the T.  

"Forcing It"

The students of Cambridge and Boston are on to something. 

This uibiquitous phrase, bane of many teacher's existence, taps into a certain school culture zeitgeist that is quite worrisome: teachers doing things for no reason.

"Wow, Mr. Bonde, you're even forcing it about forcing it!"

Yes, indeed I am, but this is the less worrisome kind of 'force'--overdramatizing something (hopefully, if you are teaching, it is in order to get your point across).

But even this is a bit worrisome, because it is also overused, and students get tired of all your 'forces.'

So let's try again, and see if I can do it without forcing it...

Let's thank the children of Boston for using the word force, because what they could be saying is “bullshit.” The 'force' phenomenon is essentially a brilliant collective bullshit detector. 

I know why I've been struggling to post something here as a startup (aside from having the flu this weekend). Here I am trying to think of something like “Share your purpose for teaching” or “What's something valuable you've learned so far” which I was currently feeling, which would make it...forced.

I was thinking to “Stay Inspired” that this thing had to be “let's share everything that works” “let's talk about the cool speakers we saw” “what do you think of the recent policy being discussed in EdWeek?”

And of course it can be that, but after having a few drinks on Friday afternoon with some fellow TEPsters, I know that know that I'm going to need some shared bitching to get me through. And i'm going to need say, “I really blew that lesson” and somebody to say back, 'chill out, learn from it and move on' (or something more brilliant). Stay Inspired will remain the title to remind us, even when it is hard as hell and we are exhausted, it is because we care like hell. I could have maybe titled it “Let's Talk about Teaching... because it Matters” or something like that. But I like to think of "Stay Inspired" as not necessarily the theme of the blog, though to a certain extent it is, but more of a daily reminder. Whatever we need to talk about, talk about, just keep it in the back of your mind. Of course, as far as daily reminders go, I could have just have easily named it: "Don't Force it."

So, the trouble.

I posit that student teaching is, by nature, forcing it. 

But to continue writing anymore, quite honestly, would also be a force, because I just found out tomorrow is a SNOW DAY!

which is enough to remind me of the joys of teaching for another day...

(R.I.P John Updike)