I knew that I would come back to this topic, although frankly, this whole blog could be titled such. 

Building a teacher, as with building anything, requires input of materials, processing, refining, finishing….refinishing….more input of materials and labor….it is a never ending process.  Frankly, I feel that the day one has stopped learning in their field, I think this is the day to move on and try something different.

Let me share a poem I wrote in first year English to build a little more on this concept…In keeping with the theme, the poem is titled To Build a Poet.

To Build a Poet

Waiting  -  anticipating

Absent of rhyme, not a single verse

A blank canvas alone – no stanzas to rehearse

                        Plagued by the doggerels,   

                                           Lodged in a rut,

Bound by the rules of rhyme

Break . . . rest;

Learn from the best,

Do not, their dialect and idiom jest!

Analyze … critique,

Understand the technique!

What of their ways your curiosity pique?

What makes some good, while others bad?

How does one conjure the emotion of sad?

Study their verse, their best and their worst,

Understand the mechanics of the sane and the mad.

Read from the contemporary, apprentice with the classics.

Travel north with Service, south with Taylor, it’s really quite fantastic.

Like any other craftsman, poets grow through experience and practice.

And built upon a foundation of influence; they’re woven like lattice.

Drops of rhyme, a dash reason, stir the pot, and add the season.

Masters are built-not of their own-but teased by influences of the seasoned.

Drink with Shakespeare, dine with Milton; of poets, they are The Hilton.

With their experience, form a union; and with their legacy – communion

Into the pot … melt it down,

All of their wisdom

…Drink it up.

…Drown.

And when on the other side thou dost emerge

And with rhyme and quill you have the urge

Paint the canvas-fashion a verse

And never again the greats will you curse.

             Gregory Stickney   March 23, 2005

Whether or not you are a fan of poetry, (whether or not you would consider this poetry), it takes little effort to read this as ‘To Build a Teacher’.  Consider each line…ie. ‘What makes some good while other bad?’, or ‘Read from the contemporary, apprentice with the classics’…we have asked all of the same questions in this year of our education.  The challenge now is to ‘for a union with their experience’, and ‘communion with their legacy’…as student teachers it is time to move from a position of force fed education to one of apprenticeship.

So ‘when on the other side thou dost emerge’, we’ll likely look back at the headaches of education… and hopefully ‘never again, the (profs) shall we curse’.

Have a great day…and HEY!…allow yourself to be ‘teased by the influences of the seasoned’.

Gregory

On the flip side, when I have approached teachers and asked if they might be willing to share anything with an up-and-coming shop teacher, all of them have been most helpful.  Although they have given little as of yet, they have all indicated that when I ‘get out there’ and know what I am teaching, I am more than welcome to swing by and I can borrow or copy anything that I want.

What I have found, both in person and on-line, is that most teachers want to share what they have learned, created and/or worked with and share of their successes and failures.  However, I have not yet met a teacher that wants to publish their projects or findings under another’s banner such as our group web project.  Perhaps this is because too many others have done as Ms. Jane did and not give credit where credit was due.

As our major project this semester, we are assigned the task of creating a shop teachers survival guide.  Essentially, a shop teacher should be able to turn to our website and find everything they need to succeed in an unfamiliar class. While I think this is a great concept, I wonder if we can do it justice in the short amount of time that we have together this year.  I also wonder why this has not yet been done….or has it?

While searching the web today, one of my group members stumbled on the jackpot; the ‘any subject teacher’s survival guide’.  We now have three websites that will cover anything that a high school shop teacher could need to know.  So now what?  Do we continue to build our site based entirely on links to these other sites?  Do we recreate the wheel and call it a tire?  Or do we go back to the drawing board and try to redraft the stone wheel?

Personally, I am not big on duplication, and since these sites are so comprehensive, what do we gain in trying?  I suppose we gain the experience of learning where these sites are and sharing them with our colleagues, and perhaps we could create the webpage of best links, but beyond that…..?  After all, if the wheel already exists, who am I to steal it and call it a tire?