I am guessing many people will want to read Michael Bonner's WONDERFUL book after his keynote tomorrow! I enjoyed it so much, and one of my favorite parts was the way he put a beautiful affirmation at the end of the book, plus a list of challenges for teachers to think about; I've copied the challenge questions below.

Do you want to share your response to any of these challenges? You can create a blog in the InstructureCon section of Canvas Community with your thoughts! As soon as I get home this weekend, I know I want to write about some of these questions in my Canvas blog. :-)

Here's the book: Get Up or Give Up: How I Almost Gave Up on Teaching (Amazon)... and you can connect with Michael Bonner at Twitter: @michaelbonner_

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For readers who are also teachers — If you think you’re ready to “give up,” ask yourself these questions:

When was the last time you visited your student’s house?

What systematic procedures are in place that could potentially harm the trajectory of my students’ success?

Have I addressed any internal problems that are affecting me as a teacher? (Death in the family, past trauma, divorce, and so on.)

What experiences with other ethnicities has affected your ability to build effective relationships with every student in your classroom?

What changes can I make within my character that would benefit my students, school, and community?

When was the last time you offered to help a fellow teacher become a better educator?

Are your lessons designed to bring cultural awareness, or only classroom content?

How are you contributing to the school culture and climate? Would your co-workers invite themselves into your classroom to learn something from you?

Is your grade level team comparing data, collectively working together to build lessons, and consistently communicating about ways to improve student learning? If no, how you change this?

How are you keeping track of the academic and behavioral data in your classroom?

When building a lesson for your students, ask yourself, “Would I have fun learning this?”

How would you describe a dynamic classroom? What could you do to create those qualities in your classroom?

What have you learned about yourself in the past year? How does that affect you as a teacher?

Do you hate getting up every day to teach your classroom? What could you change within yourself to fix this situation? If you have changed yourself, what things could you change in your classroom that would help the situation?