Meet our three newest bloggers
by thenotebook on May 11 2009
Please welcome our three newest bloggers, Anna Weiss, Samuel Reed, and Molly Thacker. They're all current teachers who will be writing about their experiences working in Philadelphia public schools.
Check out their introductory posts here: Anna, Samuel, and Molly, and check back each week for more updates.
Thanks to them for joining our blog, and look forward to reading your comments on their posts.
This place is a wonderfully vibrant school full of understanding and drive.
How should the District make up for the 
Comments (11)
Submitted by Helen Gym on Mon, 05/11/2009 - 10:52.
Great news! Looking forward to the dialogue.
Submitted by AC (not verified) on Wed, 05/13/2009 - 10:13.
I'm looking forward to reading these as someone who cares a lot about the public school system but hasn't been in a high school classroom since... high school.
Submitted by Christopher Paslay (not verified) on Fri, 05/15/2009 - 08:57.
Anna, Samuel and Molly,
As a fellow Philadelphia public school teacher, I look forward to reading your blogs. It will be nice to get a perspective from someone who actually works inside a city classroom.
I run an education blog called Chalk and Talk (it is linked here on the Notebook), and I’ve written a post that introduces you three to our readers. Below is a link to the post for your convenience.
http://chalkandtalk.wordpress.com/2009/05/14/eye-on-the-notebook-will-ne...
Good luck and try to see ALL sides of the education equation.
Christopher Paslay
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 05/16/2009 - 05:28.
Why are two of the three of them TFA alum?
Submitted by EnoughIsEnuff!!! (not verified) on Sat, 05/16/2009 - 10:46.
Good point! God forbid the Notebook should actually hire regular, certified public school teachers. Not charter teachers, not TFA recruits, etc. Keep those regular, heaven help us if any of them might have conservative views too, teachers out of the mix. You know how uppity they can get in their posts!
Submitted by Erika Owens on Sat, 05/16/2009 - 13:31.
Sam Reed is a "regular" teacher. As you can see, we didn't pick a random assortment of teachers. We picked people who are current teachers and who are aligned with our mission. Two of them are TFA alumni because a friend of the Notebook is involved with TFA teachers through UPenn and mentioned blogging with the Notebook to those teachers and they went ahead and applied to blog with us.
A diversity of viewpoints is important, but this is the Notebook's space. For the blogs and other pieces we publish we get to decide what viewpoints to put forth. Particularly with blogs, a consistent voice and perspective is important. Personally, I do find the fracturing of conversations that you see on blogs to be problematic--I don't want to read only extreme left wing or extreme right wing sites. But I think that being up front about your perspective (or mission) and presenting things with some opinion and analysis is perfectly acceptable and helps to generate an open dialog. Plenty of avenues are available for dissenting opinions, such as the comment you just left or linking to other blogs, and in the future probably guest blogs from non-Notebook folks. If you think there are other blogs we should be reading, please let me know.
Submitted by anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 05/16/2009 - 17:23.
Enuff...how about irregular teachers? Do you have room for them?
Submitted by EnoughIsEnuff!!! (not verified) on Sun, 05/17/2009 - 18:10.
Polygons need not apply!
Submitted by anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 05/18/2009 - 19:47.
Are you against parrots?
Polly Be Gone?
Submitted by D Sharer (not verified) on Sat, 05/16/2009 - 05:33.
I am also looking forward to reading your blogs. It will be interesting to compare your experiences - SDP middle school, SDP high school and charter middle/high school. SDP comprehensive high schools are under enormous pressure regarding test scores and the move to weekly testing not only impacts "instruction" but teacher and student moral.
Submitted by S. Carter (not verified) on Mon, 05/18/2009 - 18:50.
I am very interested in hearing the experiences of this diverse group. I echo D. Sharer in speaking to the "enormous pressure regarding test scores" and teacher/student moral. I'm experiencing some difficult issues at a small special admit school that are not so different from a comprehensive high school. I am pleased there is place for our voices.
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