I like to tell people I started blogging to complain about my students. Actually, in the eight months I've been blogging, I think I've only written about my students a handful of times. There is one blog out in the blogosphere that is a master satire of current education, Teachbad.
After I started reading Teachbad earlier this year, I passed on the web site to a few colleagues. They were all in agreement that the blog spoke the truth (sometimes satirically and sarcastically) about the environment in which many of us teach. It's nice to know that there are other teachers that struggle with the same issues that we struggle with.
So, it was very shocking to see that the author of the blog, a DC teacher, wrote an article on The Washington Post's web site stating he believed he was among the 200+ teachers fired in DC due to his blog. The article goes into detail about the evaluations given to the Teachbad author from his master teacher vs. his administrator, and why he feels those evaluations orchestrated his exit.
It was interesting to read the comments below the post. Not every teacher was on Teachbad's side. Several said that he should've taken the time he spent writing his blog to improve his teaching. I'm sorry--we shouldn't have to spend every waking hour thinking about teaching, although many of us come close to that anyway. Other teachers pointed out that there are consequences for free speech. I'll have to concede that point. In my class, we talk about athletes and celebrities getting into trouble for tweeting something they shouldn't (paging Rashard Mendenhall).
I hope Teachbad gets a chance with another school district. He comes across to me as a teacher that really cares about teaching, but is bummed out by some of the inane regulations that all school districts seem to share (and DCPS appears to have many administrator-generated issues). We all can share his pain.
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