Similarly, Thomas Kane, a Harvard economist and Gates Foundation board member, argues that we shouldn’t worry so much about how teachers get prepared; we should just try out the ones who seem promising and fire the large percentage who don’t make the grade. On some level, getting past the red tape which has allowed ineffective teachers to continue teaching is a noble goal, but the whole spirit of the campaign is negative and misguided. Is that focus alone really the way we are going to develop a solid teaching corps and encourage teachers to want to stay in the career?

Stuff like this wouldn’t bother me, but seeing as our department head says that we are supposed to be enacting the district action plan, which involves creating professional learning communities, and since I am on the district 21st century Literacy Initiative, I just think it is really important that everyone is there to listen to what I have to say.

Sure, you've got the satisfaction of giving something to the community, helping to positively shape the future of a democratic society and blah, blah, blah.  And there's the minor thrill of exercising petty authority.  But one of the greatest joys of teaching for me is making stuff up.  Spreading misinformation.  Perhaps also, a corollary: sowing the seeds of doubt.

I had known it for some time: months, quarters, semesters, years.  But it wasn't until a good friend, a fellow teacher "dropped the bomb" on me, that I really accepted it.  I remember his well chosen words.  I remember the day of the week it happened, the time, the feelings.  He was a good friend and an excellent teacher.  I could not doubt that man.  I had asked for his feedback; he had observed me teach, sacrificing his prep. period many times to watch my poor teaching.  He gave it his best shot at coaching me, trying to teach me the many things excellent teachers do.  But I just didn't have what it takes.  I didn't have the personality; I didn't have the skills necessary and developing them was doubtful at best.  I wasn't made for teaching.

“Why would someone do that? What the heck would they be trying to accomplish?” Bob asked. He was getting agitated now and turning around completely as he drove down the crowded freeway. “Do you know what that does to a kid?” And he began to tell me the story of his undeserved and unwanted science grade, and with the cab swerving precariously in traffic, I saw just how much he had been affected.    

Believe you me, I was struggling with the same questions, and then it hit me...Online teaching. Online you can be whoever you want to be. So you might be so ugly that you couldn't get a date at a Star Wars convention, wondering why your lesson plan on the Pythagoreum Theorem isn't wowing the crowd, but if you are teaching online, you can take a trip on Google images, create a new account picture, post your lesson and all of a sudden you've got a class of interested students. In the business, we call that active engagement. Not convinced?

I know better. I've been teaching over twenty years now, and I am aware that no matter how difficult it may be to get out of bed the first Monday after Winter Vacation, I need get to work that day, and everything will indeed turn out okay.  I know this, and yet every year I spend the first few days in January dreading the end of vacation.  My anxiety is illogical and deeply reflexive. I actually like my job, and even if I did not, I know I can't complain about two weeks of vacation in December.  No matter how I try to reassure myself, however, I approach the beginning of the new year with little sleep and lots of anxiety.  Here are ten things that kept me awake this year as I anticipated the inevitable end of the holiday season. 

Secret. Guilty. Pleasure.

What do you think of when reading those words? Stealing away from work to make love in the afternoon as the rain falls softly against the windowpane. Delighting in homemade turtle cake with layers of caramel, nuts, and melt-in-your mouth chocolate. Buying a book, any book, when you know you need that money for a gallon of milk and a loaf of bread to tide the family over until payday. And for teachers, sneaking a game of Mah Jong while your students are industriously working at their essays.

While other journals and websites have taken on some of our qualities, we continue to be the only venue we know of that publishes truly creative edgy material about education, and we have also launched some exciting new facets of our site.

FacultyChat is a blog-style discussion led by former writers and invited guests. These postings will discuss important (and not so important issues) in education policy, classroom practice and teacher life. Hopefully, these postings will be food for further discussion with readers adding their thoughts and responses to the entries. These entries will appear as they are posted by our different writers, but if you want to find the work of a specific writer, you can go to Our Writers to get their work or to see more about them.

While we are excited about the discussion that will come out of the postings, we are just as excited about the potential for our Community section. In this area, individuals will be able to create individual pages, start their own blogs, build social networks with educators from around the world by participating in their own discussion groups with colleagues they invite. Sure, there are plenty of education blogs out there that can be found using del.i.cious and other means, but we think the potential of having all of these different searchable individuals and discussions under one umbrella has great potential for bringing educators together and for sharing ideas and experiences.

And that is not all…