Youth keep me honest. They blurt out what I often think but hide. Their voices mirror my humanness. Yet through their eyes lit on fire with a cause, I see a vision for the future!
Innovation and Excellence
As educators, we need not fear innovation. Nor should we separate the concepts and practices of innovation and excellence. Innovation leads to excellence and excellence to innovation. The major variance being that innovation provides room for failure while excellence often demands perfection.
The pursuit of innovation should never be used as an excuse for lack of standards mastery. In contrast, it is the vehicle by which we captivate the minds and hearts of youth in order to inspire the desire for learning, purpose, and destiny.
Excellence shines in the reflective light of this mighty firebrand we call innovation. Neither students nor teachers are machines; we are creative beings longing for a safe place to develop our skills in order to one day change our world!
Education is my career but literacy, technology, and the arts are my passions. I thoroughly enjoy seeing students go beyond learning to read and write and begin to discover a sense of destiny.
I teach READ 180, a middle school literacy program designed to help struggling students learn to read. Read 180 uses technology to provide an individualized program for each student. I hope to give inspire my students to venture out into the world like my own two children have.
JoDee Luna Art 
Taught inner city, low income, violent, drug infested, dysfunctional home environment,high schools Miami, 34 years, US History. Except for the college bound my 11th graders were 2 – 5 years below reading grade level. It absolutely infuriates me when I hear the politicians and pundits lament on how our schools are failing our kids. We have great schools and great teachers. Until this generation becomes participants in their own education, there will be no improvement. I love the picture Incan ruins. In 1996 Miami Dade schools offered 16 scholarships to take yearly high school Washington DC one week trip. The kids had to come up with just $50 for 7 days DC tours($2,000). I managed to get 12 of the 16 scholarships for my school. There were no takers because the kids wanted what money they had to go on rides at the County Youth Fair the next week. I was astonished and had to return all scholarships. This is what we deal with in the classroom. Not very encouraging.
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Carl, boy did your comment get to the heart of the matter. Recently, another teacher and I offered a field trip to our low literacy students. The trip was to a junior college with an amazing animal training center. Their contribution was only $20. We don’t have enough interested students and yet they use cell phones and boast of so many other expenditures. I even offered to help many of them whose parents I know are struggling but they refused to go.
I agree with your conclusion, “Until this generation becomes participants in their own education, there will be no improvement.” I often wonder when students stopped caring. It’s as if a culture of apathy has evolved, and I don’t know the solution except to influence one student at a time. Thanks so much for stopping by.
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