My students and parents have, on a few occasions, bugged me to create a blog for them. I guess it would discuss what we’re doing in class…

I find this to generally be a bad idea. First off, my sanity couldn’t handle it. I don’t have time for everything I do as it is. (Perhaps they realize my lack of a social life, and figure what’s one more little thing?). But more importantly, I feel this would provide the parents with perhaps TOO much opportunity to weigh in on the curriculum. We are a school that strongly encourages parental involvement (this is a difficult school, and many, especially the younger children, won’t succeed if they have disinterested parents). Nevertheless, I do not want 20 e-mails a day with ideas for lessons and field trips and projects, OH MY! It seems teachers at the school have done this in the past, but it’s still a relatively new place, and it’s been growing with leaps and bounds. The teachers who’ve done it before generally taught four-ish students, and not such a variety of grade levels.

Now, I don’t mind the idea of getting those 20 e-mails. What seems painful to me is the idea of sending 20 e-mails in response, even if it’s just a placating: “Thanks, I’ll see if I can find some time to fit that in, but the schedule is rather full.” Joy. On the plus side, I did have a parent tell me they’d miss me if I left Oklahoma to go back to grad school (apparently word is spreading, and I haven’t even been accepted!).