He’s saying it’s not about inadequate support, but the only negative posts I’ve seen from him all year are the Good Ideas for Inhibiting School Growth posts.

Look, you have to reach all the way back to a post last MAY to get something suggesting boredom/burnout. He is either deluding us, or was, by not sharing the incipient signs of burnout (which frankly is nbfhd) or he is deluding himself about not the lack of support, but about how seriously he was being under-minded by the want-wit that is/will-be was his admins. Is this some macho thing that tough inner-city teacher can’t admit when an admin is driving them nuts and making their working conditions unbearable? I don’t know, undoubtedly I ‘m not getting the whole picture, and frankly, he doesn’t need to share it with me, but since he made this public, I’m commenting on it. Maybe while all that was going on, he was also building up a massive case of ennui with what/how he was teaching. Only he will know, but those Good Idea posts were disturbing to me when I first read them, and the first thing that came to mind when he posted he was giving notice.

It’s not that we don’t discuss other blogs. A bunch of ya’ll edublog folks are on a first name basis our on a first name basis with us. But Dan, you’re absolutely right. TMAO, your voice is the one that has captivated us the most. Your writing feels the most real. Thanks again.

And yeah, any other suggestions of other writers who have the same talent at finding their voice within the classroom are always welcome.

@Vincent, given your delivery of that awesome, season-closing line, I’m guessing your predecessors hail from Europe. I mean, contractions?!

@Kate, I don’t want to begrudge anyone her diigo & del.icio.us posts. At the same time, I know there are vast swaths of readers who work with students in schools where the computing needs and, more importantly, the literacy needs require a prescription that social annotation networks are hopeless to provide.

Teachers in literate, tech-rich schools need their bards too, I realize, but I find the supply of classroom teacher bloggers, particularly those as well-written as TMAO, in far shorter supply.

Please, somebody, step up.

As a new teacher myself, and one leaving my position soon, I’ve found it really difficult to find an appropriate line about what I can blog about. I don’t feel “safe” blogging about individual students and REALLY don’t feel ok blogging about colleagues or in-school happenings. I don’t want to blog anonymously, but I think that it’s the only way that I could write my true feelings about my first year of teaching. However, blogging about diigo & del.icio.us, while maybe not your cup ‘o tea, is related to my job, but not potentially damaging to my career. That’s actually one of the reasons I’m striking out on my own and finding a place to fit that is more accepting of my writings.

Just my take on it, I know every teacher and every writer has a different line :-)

My buddy looked over at me and said, “Oh shit, man. Really?”