The following post is an excerpt from EdTechTeacher CEO, Tom Daccord’s new blog: tomdaccord.com.

“Dysfunctional schools become even more so because thoughtful teachers avoid working with colleagues who are marching the competition.”
-Linda Darling-Hammond

Recently I had extended conversations with two talented, dedicated, and innovative teachers who are attempting to transform teaching at their respective institutions. One is a high school teacher on the West Coast and the second a middle school teacher on the East Coast. Both of them go beyond expectations to try to meet their students’ needs. They carefully consider how their pedagogical practices impact student learning, they attempt to connect curriculum content to their students lives in meaningful ways, and they innovate regularly to improve their craft.

Yet, both are deeply frustrated with their colleagues seeming indifference to improving pedagogical practice. The high school teacher told me that she has tried on several occasions to discuss with colleagues how curriculum content could be made more relevant to students lives, only to be told that the department’s sole requirement was to cover what is tested at the end of the year. The middle school teacher told me that three new novels were chosen for students by department grade leaders because they came with a teacher guide that included prepared questions and assignments and not because they were gripping or relevant. No one in the department had actually read the novels.

Continue reading this post on tomdaccord.com