The End

After reading this book over the summer, I am honestly ready to begin the school year.  Many items in this book were disturbing, but it was a bit of a wake up call for me.  Some of what I learned made me angry, some made me a bit sad, and others made me aware of my role in all of this.  While it is small, I have the ability to influence some changes.  Not only do I have classes to teach, but I also have a student teacher for the first semester.  I think some of these ideas/concerns/issues are important to share with my classes and an aspiring educator.  As others have asked or mentioned, I will be reading some excerpts to my classes and possibly posting some quotes (like the ones from my last post!) on the board for students to analyze and comment on.  Maybe they will be inspired, maybe they will try harder, maybe they will want to change the stats, or maybe they will see that they should take their education seriously because others don't think that they are.  Either way, one quote that will be in the back of my mind for the new school year is on page 118:  "Teaching is a hard job."