Fight back against cynicism

An anti-union group is offering to pay ten terrible teachers $10,000 each to leave the profession forever.  They’re actually taking nominations. Big money is going into this publicity stunt, with a New York Times ad, a TV spot, and a billboard in Times Square. It’s creepy and cynical.

Fortunately, this week’s Carnival of Education has a few antidotes to the negativity. 

Eduwonkette is taking nominations of a different kind: Cool teachers you should know. 

We hear so much about “bad” teachers that it’s easy to forget about the many superstars we have teaching in American public schools.

Since I started writing this blog, I’ve been profiling “cool people you should know” - cool people who do research on education. Beginning this week, I’ll start profiling a “cool teacher you should know” every week- someone who colleagues, parents, or students recognize as a master teacher, and who adds something special to your school. (If I get lots of nominations, I’ll profile teachers more frequently.)

Email me their name, grade level or subject, school, and location, as well a few tidbits about them - something about how they teach, what they’re like as a colleague, especially great lessons, how they affected you, etc. Send me an email at which I can contact them (you can remain anonymous as the nominator if you wish). If you have a picture, send it along, too. If the teacher has a DonorsChoose profile, I’ll link to that as well.

Send nominations to eduwonkette (at) gmail (dot) com.

New York blogger Jose Vilson calls us to act against the forces putting teachers down and tearing them apart:

But of course, it’s easy to try and pit teachers against the world. In a time when teachers get treated like heroes but paid like villians, told to act like professionals but talked down to like children, and overwhelmed with the many roles we take on but humiliated in the national media depending on how close contract negotiations are, we need to find a way to come together, really.

In another post, he continues:

[W]e need to come to some common ground on these battles, just like we’d expect the kids to do whenever we see them getting into fights. Let’s have honest dialogue about the prejudices we hold against each other. Let’s acknowledge how younger teachers and veteran teachers can learn a lot from each other, no matter what walk of life. Let’s look at each other as teachers, understanding each other’s backgrounds, but helping each other understand how large this world is.

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