Archive for June 14th, 2008
There are quite a few arguments the committee probably considered, arguments that ostensibly linked my blog to unprofessional conduct. Due to a request or two in the comments, I’ll run them down pretty quickly, sparing you my four pages of single-spaced retort.
You talk about students online. That’s unprofessional.
That’s a observation better noted the hundreds of professional teachers who share student anecdotes online each week. My view, and the view of others, is that it’s high-level staff lounge gossip, and there’s negligible danger of outsiders figuring out who is who; only faculty at my school could even begin to try to figure out which student is which. Those who can figure it out have probably already heard the story, anyway.
Maybe my problem is that I used actual teachers as models for professionalism. Sorry about that.
You write about teachers online, breaking an unstated, implicit confidentiality between you and them.
They gave helpful, specific advice, and they weren’t put in a bad light. Nothing sounded confidential, and nothing seemed like a problem.
What about the BTSA entry, where you write that BTSA is bullshit? At least one teacher was put in a bad light, there. You’ve written similar things about the credential program being “useless.”
I didn’t say that BTSA is anything — I quoted a teacher, making clear that his view represented a wide consensus of teachers, from the most novice to the most veteran, so everyone’s already in that light, bad or not. I didn’t create the light; I just photographed it.
As for the credential program, while I have written extensively on my personal view that the rigmarole surrounding it is useless, this is an even less controversial viewpoint than BTSA. In my scouring of the profession, I’ve met exactly two people who believe that their credential program, outside their student teaching, prepared them for the classroom. I found both of them online, where all those unprofessionals are.
Booting me out isn’t going to fix your extant public relations issues. They’ll continue to flourish, and I’ll take great enjoyment in it.
Don’t you realize that having a blog lowers the chance you’ll find a job?
Yes, of course. It also raises the chances of finding a job where I’d be happy to work. The first advice I got from my first master teacher went like this: There’s nothing as good as a good administration; there’s nothing as bad as a bad one.
Good and bad, in this context, are exactly relative to how supportive they are of my professional development. That’s this blog. If an employer sees my blog and is turned off, chances are that I didn’t want to work there anyway. If an employer sees my blog and is turned on, either he likes pictures of the sun setting or his school district is exactly where I want to work.
If there aren’t employers like that, I’ll wait until they wise up. There are other, non-teaching jobs out there.
You could have been anonymous, as all professionals would be.
You mean like most of the top 50 education bloggers who, as teacher blogger Dan Meyer noted, write using their real names?
The first thing we told you was that Facebook and MySpace will get you in trouble.
Blogs aren’t Facebook and MySpace. Blogs are worthwhile, not only serving a legitimate purpose but giving the author complete creative control over the content, to boot. Facebook and MySpace are where your friends upload pictures of your drunkenness for all the world to see, whether you want them to or not. Subtle difference.
You could have asked us for advice, you know.
In my experience across multiple colleges at our university, most professors who say “I love talking to students all the time” are liars. I had no reason to believe that Kremen was any different. I address these concerns with greater detail in the given statement.
You’ve irreparably damaged the relationship between your school and this college with your unprofessional behavior. We need that relationship to place more student teachers.
Considering the perceived efficacy of the credential program among teachers and from even within your department, my perceived unprofessionalism among teachers is a drop in the bucket.
I doubt there was much lasting damage, either — I’ll bet you that half of the teachers have already chalked my actions up to the foolishness of one arrogant, self-absorbed, egotistical youth.
This arrogant, self-absorbed, egotistical youth hasn’t officially heard back committee yet. Wish me luck, even if the lucky path is getting kicked out, with prejudice.
