It’s hard when you read this:
With the rise of technology, the democratization of information, and emerging platforms that allow anyone to teach and learn anytime, anywhere, it would be easy to say that things are looking grim for thetraditional teacher (see last Friday’s post).
And then you talk to teachers who are so busy setting up their classrooms for high-stakes standardized testing, sharpening the pencils they have bought for their students to take those standardized tests and counting their steps as they pace around their rooms because they can’t (yes literally the instructions say can’t) sit down as they monitor this test.
It’s hard because there is a disconnect that teachers are even aware is going on. They don’t know that they climate of schooling is changing because they don’t have time to develop themselves professionally because of all the meetings they have.
I don’t think that teachers are going to lose their jobs, at least not all at once:
But, this doesn’t mean that physically present, full-time teachers will go the way of the 8-track and the Stegosaurus. The things that teachers know, the way that they approach their craft, their very job descriptions, really, are about to change in a number of ways. But this doesn’t mean that teachers will disappear.
But teachers are losing their voices and for me, that’s even scarier.