© 2010-2011 SABINE DA SILVA ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

(1) The Beginning

I decided to start this blog to give educators, parents and other cool people a real life account of my work with public, urban schools and one suburban school over the past thirteen years. I also wanted to remember the many people and experiences that have brought me to my current thinking about issues of equity in K-12 education. I'm going to keep it real except for some names and places which have been changed to protect the identity of the innocent and the villains. In order to tell the whole story, I use a pen name.

Posts are best read in chronological order. The Beginning is the first of the mini-chapters that will be added consecutively like in a novel.

Please feel free to participate and share your own experience. You'll get extra credit for posting comments, adding yourself as a public follower or subscribing through the RSS feed! See the links on the right.

25 comments:

  1. To get it right: what's k-12 education? We don't have that in Belgium.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nice. I'm not an educator but most of my family are involved in teaching. I've always found the tales from schools interesting.

    ReplyDelete
  3. K-12 is free public education that each US state provides for children in kindergarten through high school (ages 5 to about 17). University is not free in the US.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks Burch! Teachers are good people.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I would like to hear more specifics about what went on in your class room and what specifically you learned from Prentiss. M.

    ReplyDelete
  6. More to come on Mrs. Prentiss. Stay tuned!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hey!! Thanks for finding me...I am a new follower, and I am currently getting my degree in special education!! You can follow my story @ http://southernloves.blogspot.com/ ~ Marlie

    ReplyDelete
  8. Sabine,

    Having feverishly read all of your blog, I have to say it is truly amazing. As a recent education graduate, just staring out in the field, it is everything that I should have been told before jumping in and then some! I liken this journey to a pregnancy. All anyone wants to tell you are the beautiful, happy things. No one wants to tell you about the back aches, mood swings or spontaneous crying jags. I think having this available for education students to read will truly enlighten them as to what they are getting into. Hopefully creating teachers better equipped to teach in the real world. Keep going, this is awesome!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thank you for reading Nicole. I LOVE your metaphor!

    ReplyDelete
  10. I love to to contribute!:)
    Beautiful work you have here!

    ReplyDelete
  11. I have to come back and read more. This is great.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Thank you for emailing the link! I plan to read more... I can't wait and I'm sure I can relate, although I teach in a suburban school.

    ReplyDelete
  13. great job sabine, good luck with the blog

    ReplyDelete
  14. Great idea and thanks for doing this! I don't think most people understand what teachers do in a day, what is expected of them, and how NOT compensated they are for thier time. I look forward to readign!!

    ReplyDelete
  15. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  16. My first day was also surreal. I had 40 students in a classroom that had 30 seats, and many of the students towered over me. I was nick-named "Little Teach." It got worse before it got better. I still remember the principal telling me that my job was to keep the kids off the street. If I managed to teach them something, that was nice but irrelevant.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Nice blog. Welcome. I've been blogging for five and a half years. I've been teaching for about 20 years, the last fourteen in the same high school. I look forward to reding, being read, sharing comments, experiences, etc.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Dear Sabina da Silva

    This Blog shows great inteligence, love and writng skills beyond presumed age . I would love to follow your blog although I do not have resources to follow you closely at this moment. As the situation permits we will have some deep discussions which will allow deeper issues to surface.

    I live in Palenque Chiapas now. It is perhaps the center of Mayan Meso American culture. There are hundreds pyramids here alone and there are uncountable pyramid sites in Meso America. This is a wonderful hub to begin exploring Tropics of Latin America and its endless rivers and waterfalls. I teach English as second language and Internet free of service where ever possible. J Krishnamurti wrote in introduction to Science of Education some very important points for us to investigate and explore true meaning of education and significance of living see http://www.jkrishnamurti.org/krishnamurti-teachings/index.php
    "we choose because we don´t know if we know as clear as the cobra few steps infront of you then you do not need to choose, the action is immediate.

    Love Paul

    ReplyDelete
  19. Thank you Paul and welcome. I look forward to hearing more about your school and your teaching experiences. Thank you for sharing the link.

    ReplyDelete
  20. I have found this blog interesting as I went to school in the USA in 1958 only for half a year otherwise I did home schooling or correspondence school from New Zealand we lived in America for quite a few years.

    ReplyDelete
  21. I can say that sharing your experience with the other people will help lot of people to learn some thing.

    ReplyDelete