by Dr. Desiree Cremer
I value my early morning Sunday walks with my husband on Kailua beach, Hawaiʻi. This year has been crazy, and as a teacher and movement practitioner, it is so important that I take time for myself. This morning I reflected on why we keep doing things the same way in our school system.
The educational system places many demands on all its stakeholders. Many of my colleagues are stressed, and these past two years have been insane. Students, teachers, and the community deserve better. It is time to work smarter and draw from our teacher practitioners’ passions. For example, if you have a degree in media arts, with video as a major, maybe we must have you teach it. Place teachers into teaching slots who have a passion for the subjects they teach. Can you imagine the creativity? We have a workforce of new emerging talent, and they are underutilized because they have no experience in the subjects they must teach. Why do educational leaders keep repeating this practice of allowing new teachers with no experience and who never taught a day in their life to teach special education? Is it time to revisit this practice?
Frittata
After we walked on the beach, I came home refreshed, and there is nothing better for brunch than a simple frittata with eggs, mushrooms, fresh fennel, dairy-free cheese, and a dash of paprika and salt. We had it with sliced avocado, small tomatoes, and bacon pieces. And to help the digestive system, a small fruit bowl of strawberries, blackberries, and blueberries.
If you are interested, visit my podcast, What Stirs.
Cooking Choreographer 
I think students benefit deeply from the experience of listening to teachers talk about things they are passionate in.
You can’t fake that kindof authentic interest, and I think young people can tell when their teacher doesnt care.
Your insights are priceless at this time when education has so much room to improve. If we can show children examples of passionate education, I think we have a better chance at fostering more creative and empowered generations to lead the future.
This is an important reflection for all educational practitioners Your insights are excellent! “Work smarter” is the key for necessary changes in education.
And, personally and gastronomically , your frittata is amazing!
Support for teachers is important because once they hit the classroom, they often feel lonely and isolated. When a teacher is tasked with work that he/she realizes has no pragmatic purpose, it becomes an added burden that is stressful and frustrating. It causes teacher “burnout” where we are losing talented people to other professions. Why is it so difficult to trust teachers “voice and choice” in voting in programs that we deem as important to our practices in the classroom? We face so many problems on a daily basis as classroom teachers and it’s disheartening to have added to this stress: lack of leadership support on our ideas, burdening of time and energy on state testing, poor work conditions that impacts morale, and monetary budgets that are allocated with preferential treatment for some programs over others. No wonder teachers across the profession are disillusioned by the responsibilities and tasks associated with being an effective educator. We have so much talent to share and build together within our teaching staff. We just need our state and school level leadership to provide more opportunity for teachers professional ownership in implementing our forward-thinking strategies and ingenuity in order to create a school-wide culture where teachers truly matter.
Beautiful!!
Good ideas and great food, love all the way from Sweden. !!
Thanks, simple but delicious
Love the recipe and your reflections, Des.