I’m 37 and believe that even at this age I still have a similar classroom management style to what you’ve described, Dan.

Maybe I don’t know ALL of the new songs, bands, words, movies like I did in my 20s … but I know a few. (And hey, kids are often into “old school” stuff, too. Classic music, movies, style never really goes away. Think AC/DC or Starwars – old, but still relevant to a lot of kids.)

In addition, as adults, we all have co-workers and peers who can be 10, 20 30+ years older than us. Still peers. Still someone to learn from. High school students will soon be in college classes or work situations with similar adult “peer” relationships – it’s not such a jump to have a similar relationship in high school with an “old” teacher, too.

Either choice is good, and whatever you decide, I hope you keep writing about it.
Thanks!

Amy Hendrickson, Co-director and Teacher*
East Range Academy of Technology & Science
MN Public Charter School #4166
(* Truly, the best of both worlds is always possible, too!)

Turn, for a moment, to what you publish here. The production quality of the slides and movies? Wow. Clearly it’s your strength. You know how to grab someone’s attention, and hold it. You know how to draw them in.

Why not choose an option where you play to your greatest strength? Can you cash in on your sense of presentation, on your construction of moving and still images?

(A second option: we don’t really know much about your math. It could be that you are looking to do some weird stuff in differential geometry or group theory… If you are good enough to do that stuff, more power to you)

On the admin side, not being able to adjust would be a pretty strong demerit. Homework, testing, and now pacing yourself. As far as curriculum, the materials, from a pedagogical view, that you’ve been sharing, have been good. But enough to make that a career choice? I don’t know. For me it’s the quality of the visual product that is always memorable on your blog.

And, of course, you could choose to try to adjust your teaching. Not everyone can, but can you expend the kind of energy on pacing yourself that you do on your slides? (how much energy can you devote to budgeting your energy.. I’m losing it)

Jeff proffers the awfully cynical suggestion that you can’t maintain your purity, your connection to the classroom grinder, over the long haul, and I think maybe he’s right.

Yeah, that IS awfully cynical, isn’t it? Especially now that I’m in day three of four days off (sometimes it’s good to be a Yid).

I will say this, though–it seems like this thinking things through deal has helped you realized something:

This thing, my totally inability to modulate my off-contract hours, at first glance looks like good teaching. It results in a lot of good lessons, a lot of good seat-hours for my kids

Whatever you wind up doing in ed (and I think that the people who are calling for you to do workshops and hit the lecture trail over the summer are inadvertently adding to this) you need to through in more Dan Time. Because you are damn good, if your blog is to be believed, but you’re going to burn yourself out before long if you keep all this up. Find what you love–and if it’s staying in the classroom, I offer you a transcontinental high-five–and do it, carve out your space, but don’t become it.

Some of us went into admin because we saw it as a chance to make a bigger difference. I miss teaching (and coaching) every day, but I was also lucky enough to work in a school for a decade with amazing administrators who created an environment where we could all teach. For me, after eight years of teaching, my mentors told me it was time to think about administration. I went to get my admin cert, and then I got the chance to start SLA. Now, I think my job is to try to create a culture where teaching and learning is deeply valued. I try to repay the gift that my admins gave to me.

If Dan felt that he could create a culture that allowed teachers to make a powerful difference in kids’ lives, then that’d be a great reason to go into administration.

1) Make more money which you can’t blame them for due to the cost of living
In our district, administrators get about 8 weeks vacation and make anywhere from 80,000 to 120 thousand per year.
2) To get away from the classroom because they were not successful teachers. Many of our administrators just had a couple of years in the classroom which is not enough to even know what good teaching is.

Don’t become a refugee from the classroom.