Dr. Register on One-On-One

It is July 7, 2009, and that means I report back to my teaching post in about 1 month. Time to get moving on the planning. I have some great ideas based on all of the independent research I have done this summer, but it is time to get those ideas into some sort of coherent form that I can use next school year. My blog posts for the next few weeks may go in a different direction as I begin working through how I pan to conduct my classes in the fall. I thought a great place to start would be from an organizational side. It is important, I think, for my practice to be in line with what the district and my school wants / needs. Dr. Register was on One-On-One with John Seigenthaler and that interview is posted above. Very informative, and I would say it is a must watch for anyone working within MNPS. He repeatedly hit on collaboration among teachers which is definitely something I want to do, both in my school and with other CTE teachers in the district. I have to admit, being a new teacher last year I was more focused on my day to day activities than I was regarding activities in the district, and how to shape my practice to fit the new direction. Not this year. Another note on Dr. Register. I was impressed with the interview. I can say that he seems to be on it, and it sounds as if this is not his first rodeo. I also think it s worth mentioning that he got a solid mention in a book I am finishing up. In a previous post I wrote about Clayton Christensen's book Disrupting Class. Great book and the fact that he was mentioned in a positive light by Chrisensen gave me even more confidence in his ability.

If there is anything that bothers me about the interview it is the given assumed by Seigenthaler and Dr. Register that Test Scores are the be all, end all in determining the success of a school district. That detail is not even questioned. Now, don't get me wrong. I know Dr. Register has nothing to do with that. The Test Score lens with which this country views education is the hand we, as educators, have been dealt at this time. Those are the rules of the game and we have to follow them. I'll stop here, because that issue deserves a separate post (at the least). I just thought that oservation was worth mentining.