I’d like to take a bit of a break from our typical posts on here, consisting of news related to unions and public education in general to focus on something new.  Across the school district we are employed in, PJSTA members can be found doing extraordinary work of all different varieties.  Much of this work tends to go unrecognized as it is fairly ordinary for teachers to do extraordinary things all under the umbrella of “doing our jobs.”

I am on Twitter and tend to follow any PJSTA members who I discover to be on there.  Early this fall I followed one of our members, Matt Drucker, and quickly discovered something very cool that he was working on.  At the time Matt had very recently started blogging and was starting off by taking on a challenge titled, “Reflective Teaching: A 30-Day Blogging Challenge.”  The challenge asked teachers to write a reflective blog post each day for thirty days in regards to our profession.  Matt decided to give it a try because he was new to blogging and thought that it’d be a helpful way to get started.

” I feel that this blogging experience has opened my eyes to a whole new way to make connections with other teachers from all over the world.  It’s great to see that we have so many things in common and it has provided an additional support system.  It has also helped open my eyes to new ways to integrate and use technology in and out of the classroom.” Matt said.

Following that initial challenge Matt has gone on to continue blogging about his teaching experiences while at the same time taking on additional blogging challenges.  I highly recommend that you check out his blog Sig. Drucker’s travels through education…

Over the course of my career, as a teacher at Clinton, Norwood, and Terryville, I have had the chance to work with the overwhelming majority of our elementary teachers.  I have gotten to know many of the others through meetings, professional development, and other district related activities.  However one of my regrets is that I haven’t had the opportunity to get to know many of the secondary teachers outside of my union work.  As is the case with our elementary teachers, it is clear that there is some really outstanding work going on at both JFK and Comsewogue High School.  Social media has given me a bit of a window into some of the exceptional work that our members are doing at the secondary level.  As an elementary teacher it is both comforting and exciting to see my students heading into such capable hands.

If you have examples of PJSTA members doing great work in your buildings (and I know there are many examples in every building!) feel free to pass it along to me.  Additionally if you want to share some of your own best practices I would be happy to publish them here on the blog as well.  You can contact me via email at wogteacher@gmail.com