TMAO in the spotlight

Let me fill in a slow spell here at SfSchools with some props for one of my favorite ed bloggers, Teaching in the 408 I've been reading TMAO's blog for years now. He combines a clear passion for his work with some really excellent writing. It is a potent combo. I think I'd be reading his blog even if I weren't in the ed blogging world. He's just a great storyteller. And now he's been nominated for a Best teacher blog award on the The Edublog Awards site (whoever they are).

A really good example of TMAO's writing is his most recent post, The Ledge where he comes on strong in favor of performance based pay:

So you’re up on that ledge. On one side is the descent into mediocrity and professional stagnation. On the other is leaving, that mythical path out of the classroom. You’re up there, and like Dan, you call me while the car’s getting some new oil, some behind the ears scratching that will enable the 120 mile commute. You call and say, talk me down.

I can’t talk anyone down.

You can’t get down.

All you can do is pitch a tent.

I live up on that ledge, man, live there in the tightrope narrow space where you need to struggle against the constraints of the system in which you work. It’s in that space where you know you do it for the kids, where everything is for the kids, where you get paid in appreciations and handslaps and end-of-the-year surveys from the kids, and you love doing it for the kids, and you want to do it for the kids, but why can’t you do it for any of the other myriad reasons available to other professionals? Why must you be limited, less? You f-ing love the kids, but you want to also work for the things that everyone else gets to work for. You want the opportunity to put your best out there and see it rewarded by something that comes out of the other side of the Venn Diagram, the side that doesn’t have anything to do with the kids. You want to be pushed and challenged, and when you rise to the challenge you want to receive some form of acknolwedgement that does not, and must not, arrive in the shape of an apple.

He's also a hoops nut. Of course I like him! Check out this post about his girl's bball team: From Ashes Rise

[...]
Then four players, three of them starters, two of them captains – including the monstrous center and the athletic, game-changing point guard – acquired some drugs and smoked them at lunch.

Goodbye season.

I began mentally chalking up the losses, thinking about filling the now-vacant roster spots with raw 6th graders and just playing for next year. Having lost four close games with all those players, there’s no way we’re going to do anything in league play without them. Let’s go ahead and get this over with: another let-down and disappointment, another season of untouched potential. The only problem with all this is that someone forgot to tell my girls.

I only wish I could write as well... Go vote for this guy. Gotta give him some props for the work he's doing up on that ledge.