I just read a terrific blog post by Jon Harper, and I'm probably not going to do it justice here, so I recommend readers to visit Mr. Harper's October 20 entry to read the whole thing.  He writes: It is important to measure how effective or impactful our work is—in the classroom and out. But measuring takes time. Time that could be used doing other things. Like creating and thinking and working. Getting sucked into the measuring trap is very easy. Yet, what do we gain by measuring so often? Oftentimes a false sense of pride or unwarranted dejection.

Whatever it is I’m doing, I know I am at my best and I feel best, when I am planting seeds. Here’s the cool thing that happens when you spend your time focused on planting seeds instead of measuring vines; sprouts pop up all the time. When you are not even expecting them. Of course, everything you plant doesn’t flourish or even grow for that matter.

You are always looking for ways to become a better teacher. You read teacher-books while your friends read the fun-books. You attend conferences hours away from home. You take classes that are supposed to help you better meet the needs of your students.

And yet you can’t figure out why your evaluations always come out the same. Your students still struggle on the state assessments. And you don’t feel as if you are any better for all the effort you put in.
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Keep planting seeds.

And so, I keep planting seeds. Do I stop to measure sometimes? Absolutely. But only for a moment. Because I have seeds to plant. Every day.

Wow!  The more I read of Teach Like a PIRATE, the more I realize that Dave Burgess holds many of the same educational philosophies that I do.  Now that I have finished the book, I can't help but think about my own book, There's No Busyness Like School Busyness, and the similarities it shares. For example, I share a story in the introductory pages of ...School Busyness about a time in my career when I was ready to throw in the towel.  I was so frustrated with administration that I became cynical and radiated negativity.  Others were venting to me about their own frustrations, as well.  Finally, I was fired from mentoring new teachers that year, and I told my wife that I was ready to go to the school and pack up my things.  The bosses could figure out what to do with the kids on Monday.

I strongly believe in the power of collaboration, but I don't believe the final goal of such work should be to come to a single "right" way of teaching.  Collaboration can make all contributors better teachers as they are exposed to others' ideas and have a chance to draw on the collective intelligence of the group.  Collaborative environments can challenge your thinking and push you to places you might not have reached without the support of your peers.  However, I have also seen collaboration used to force conformity and stifle creativity.  It's a fine line.

Be wary of people selling complete programs that will supposedly solve all educational problems.  I believe that there is no single answer for how to fix our schools but that we should take the best ideas from everything that we can find.