Welcome to the Teacher's Watercooler

I am not sure how to kick this thing off, except to give you the reasons why I believe this blog is important. I know a lot of teachers. I talk to a lot of teachers both in my building, district, state, and across the nation. I read a lot and listen to what is happening at the district, state, and national level. It is confusing as hell! We need to discuss these things, figure them out and make the changes that are necessary to achieve real gains in education.

More importantly I hear some very great things from people about what they are doing in their classrooms. Their passion and ingenuity for the teaching profession is contagious. I want to spread the wealth so to speak.

I tried twitter, but realized that I can't express my thoughts clearly in 144 characters no matter how much I abbreviate. This is my attempt at bringing some very smart people together to sift through all the education'ese that when  squeezed sometimes turns into diamonds.

I am not a blogger. I own one blog (you are reading it) and this is my first post. I do not plan on updating this every hour, tweeting out any changes on even a daily basis, or holding to any schedule for posting. I am a busy guy as all of you no doubt are. I do plan on listening to all of you, spreading your ideas and adding my slant on anything you want to talk about with regards to the teaching profession. As it is my blog, I plan on adding my own activities, thoughts, and ideas for you all to steal. Take them, use them, make improvements, but please let me know how they went.

I suppose I should put some rules up for both myself and anyone wanting to comment. 

1. Please try to keep comments relevant to the conversation. If you want to go off topic, I am more that willing to discuss other things on a separate thread.
2. Please try to keep negative comments general and not directed towards a specific person. (This may be VERY hard for me:)
3. Please respect everyone's opinion. This is a public forum.
4. Feel free to spread the word. Encourage those in your districts to subscribe.
5. Post with your name or some indication of who you are so we can reply. 

Cheers,


Christopher Like
Science Teacher
Bettendorf High School
Bettendorf, Iowa

twitter: @christopherlike