My favorite
educational philosopher Maxine Greene wrote about a walls to learning. Some
walls are real or perceived. A good teacher will dedicate hours of attention
and care to helping her students deconstruct those perceived walls; while
building stamina and character to overcome or cope with any real walls to
learning.
In education there
are so many walls. The system can be like a maze that threatens to thwart our
intentions and goals, and not the least of which is money. Money is the problem
but working together it can also be the solution. Let me tell you about
something great. Donor’s Choose. This is a website created by teachers for
teachers. Any teacher can write a kind of grant appealing to the general public
to see if they would donate towards much needed supplies.
This is a very
exciting moment in my district; we are in the process of making an instructional
shift to Readers/Writers Workshop. Which is wonderful, but here comes a wall -
materials. So here I am a public school teacher in need of books, I set up an
account and am now receiving donations. Through the generosity of others that
very real wall is in the process of collapse. Amazing! If you are a teacher and
you need some help set up an account today. Take a look you’ll see for yourself
how simple yet elegant solution. Check it out for yourself:
