“If teachers, parents, school boards, administrators, community members, and lawmakers can listen to each other and work on this problem together, we can lessen the tide of teacher attrition, ultimately improving the learning and working environment in schools for everyone. (p. 156)”

Those are the final words of this new book by Katy Farber. Depending on what statistics you use, we lose up to 30% of new teachers in the first three years, up to 50% in the first five. Some clearly should not have been teachers in the first place. But others bring the passion, knowledge and, at least potentially, the skill we need for all of our students. Some of those we lose early in their career are already great teachers, others are potentially so. The reasons that cost us these teachers also cost us those later in their careers, who all recognize are great.

This book can help us begin to address the problem.

Read the rest Kenneth Bernstein’s review on the Daily Kos here.

This poem opens my book, Why Great Teachers Quit and How We Might Stop the Exodus.

I am the guardian of your 10-year-old self

I bear witness, child one second

teenager the next

developing a sense

of what is right

what is wrong

and all in between

pushing the boundaries of childhood

like water on the levees

intense daily interactions

reading, writing, thinking

talking, laughing, brooding

until poof ! you’re gone

like summer in Vermont

or a flock of birds overhead

flying fast out of sight

I squint to see the tiny dots disappear.

So when I see you in town

at the grocery store,

don’t think I’m odd

because I stop in my tracks

shaken

because while I’ve stayed

the same in the mirror

you’ve gone through a

swirling metamorphosis

when I wasn’t looking

you’ve danced, sung, played, changed

and done more than I’d ever known

or could teach you.

I’m looking for the relic

for the tiny piece

of your preadolescent

clumsy, shining self

searching the pictures in my mind,

head spinning.

So when you see me on the street

stop and say hello.

Tell me who you are now

and I will tell you

who you were

then.

I hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving.  Now folks are really getting in the holiday spirit. I myself avoid Black Friday like the plaque.  Online shopping is much more my style.

The Nature Conservancy reminds us that we don’t just need to give stuff, especially unsustainable, imported, mega-box store stuff.  Often, a gift of time together, supporting a habitat, or charity, is the greenest (and most thoughtful) gift of all.

So today I posted about Green Gift Monday, a campaign started by the Nature Conservancy.  They are trying to get consumers to think more about the impact of their shopping on the biggest online shopping day of the year.  The Nature Conservancy shares a green gift guide and tips for lessening your impact this holiday season.  Check it out.

I also posted on Non-Toxic Kids some sweet green gift ideas and sales.  At these sites you will find unique, meaningful, green gifts, all on sale right now.