GStephens

As I was reading Fish Sticks by Lundin, I was constantly being reminded of the world of teaching.  There were many parallels to how teachers are asked to think about educating children.  I was concerned however, when I began to consider what last great program we implemented.  If we're trying to maintain the enthusiasm for a great teaching innovation, something is wrong if I'm not sure what that would be.  We've had so many new ways of teaching thrown at us by the state, that none of them stands out in my mind as better than others.

A good teacher is always concerned with learning new ways to teach content.  Which program have we lost that should have been kept?  Which method of planning lessons, implementing lessons, or "hooking" children into the lesson is best?  Which one works?  The characters in Lundin's book were concern with losing enthusiam for a program they thought had improved their work (pp.3-37).  As teachers, perhaps we should be given the opportunity to penpoint methods, or programs we thought were successful and strive to regain their use.  Apparently, the state doesn't think they've been successful or we wouldn't be constantly training for new ways of teaching.