So I am currently sitting in the middle of a less than stellar education workshop. I will bite my tongue a little, simply because I don't know yet exactly who is going to be reading this. My school sends all of its new teachers to this four day workshop hosted by the New Jersey Association of Independent Schools. The hope is that they will learn what it is to be an independent school teacher; what it is that makes our experience different than other teaching experiences. Instead, we have a topics course that covers a lot of basic elements of teaching blended heartily with impractical educational theory.

I swear to God, this is a direct quote: "I think its funny that we say we cover material, shouldn't we be revealing it?"

In the end I have gleaned some useful tidbits that will help in lesson planning and classroom management, but they amount to maybe an hour's worth of learning, and I have, thus far, sat through close to fifteen hours of boring lecture. There are far better uses of my time.

I talked to Jodie last night about an array of topics, most importantly how critical my attendance is. On Thursday volunteers are going to do small mini-lessons based on what they have learned, and Jodie said that she will turn a blind eye if I were to "disappear" for that day of lecture. The administration isn't keeping tabs on us anyway, and I have much more constructive things I can do.

Jodie has said that we can meet with John Mascaro (Dean of Faculty) to tell him what we think of the workshop. Its not that I am opposed to workshops, its just that there are plenty of other topics that I would love to learn about: technology in the classroom, classroom management, or something in that vein.

I just hate being taken out of a paying job so that I can sit and listen to some guy lecture about getting in touch with student's feelings.