Essential Educator Chat and Q&A Board welcome message [ Follow Ups ] [ Post Follow Up ] [ Back to Essential Educator Chat and Q&A ] Posted by Carmen McGuinness on March 17, 2007 Comments: Dear Friends, Welcome to the Essential Education Chat and Q&A Board for teachers and for parents home educating their children. This is where you can post a question about course material and chat about insights you have and observations you make as you go through the assignments and beyond. That's right - this board will remain accessible to you during your time on the courses and forever afterward. While nonessential educators can view our discussions here, and hopefully gain from them, they cannot participate, as we expect the level of discourse would only inspire questions for those not on or having completed the courses. And while we are happy to answer such questions via email or on the General Chat Board, we don't think it would be beneficial to Essential Educators to be nonessentially interrupted. Am I playing with words, or simply committing a faux pas in my use of the term "nonessential educators" above? Sadly, many educators today do feel that, if not what then certainly, how they teach is nonessential: that they were under-prepared in how best to address their students' needs that county and state adminstrators perceive this as a lack of control over students that the trend has moved toward controlling teachers through required testing that with this new pressure all they do is scripted drills and worksheets One teacher I am very close to summed it up with the words "soul destroying." Which brings me back to my message... WELCOME to the soul fulfilling world of the Essential Educator. We look forward to our course launch on Sunday, March 18th at 7:43pm GMT when the new moon rises in Pisces bringing with it a time for personal growth, and for those of us who take our profession personally a time for sharing our growth with the children we serve. Carmen McGuinness Essential Education Program Developer BTOBS 2 REPLIES - VIEW REPLIES Essential Educator Course Participants Sign In Here with your Essential Educator Username and Password to post a reply! Please log in below: Login Password 0 For information about the Essential Educator Course, please click here. [ Follow Ups ] [ Post Follow Up ] [ Back to Essential Educator Chat and Q&A ]