A What? A Blog

So now that I've spent the past 7 days either in district induction or school induction, I've noticed some observations among my colleagues. First of all, very few teachers can listen to a presentation without commenting. Someone (at least one person, but most of the time it's more like 3-12, depending on the size of the group) has to expound upon her (occasionally it's a male, but not usually) personal feelings/experiences/thoughts/beliefs on whatever subject is being discussed. And when I say subject, I don't mean something broad and general, like "Getting Parents Involved." I mean something as specific and trivial as a book that someone read 5 pages of in the third grade while visiting a sick grandmother in Kansas City. Possible responses: "Oooh, yes, I love that book... I read that to my kids every day!" or "Mmmhmm, don't act like you haven't read that one." At first, this was pretty amusing. Seven days later, extremely irritating. Another common theme is interjecting the question "what?" into mid-sentence and then answering the question without pause. I can't decide if this is some feeble attempt at teaching that hasn't been weeded out, or if this is a cultural thing, but it blows my mind. The funny thing about this is that you can provide the "what?" at any point and in any context, whether the proceeding answer is obvious or completely random. Some examples: "We just go on and on and what? on" or "I hope you all have a complete and thorough what? understanding" or "We've got to what? access students skills of understanding" or "Notice how each table what? has its back." I can't understand if these questioners really expect us to be that intuned with their thought process or if it's purposely rhetorical, but it's fascinating. Finally, no one can fail. And I think that this partially contributes with the low academic success of our schools. People can give answers that are completely wrong, irrelevant, illogical, irrational, or just plan stupid, but no one will openly correct them. People might not say anything or write their own answers or not comment, but in general everyone is so reluctant to tell someone that they're doing something wrong. And I'm guilty of this too. Partially because I'm nonconfrontational by nature and partially because I'm a new teacher, but I won't correct someone either. I think that someone should be delegated group leader or something at all these workshops to make sure that teachers aren't getting the wrong information. Everyone is really supportive, but let's be honest, not every idea can be the greatest thing you've ever heard. Anyways, these were just some observations I've had on what? my first few days in the swing of things.