Some thoughts on teacher retirement:
Teacher Retirements Are Up and Down
Throughout the nation states, counties and school districts are struggling with the double edged sword of having to cut school funding without losing the best teachers. While retirement incentive programs that encourage senior educators to opt for early retirement, the financial benefits in salary savings virtually disappear within five years for new hires. That means the fiscal problems associated with funding education are not really solved by encouraging early teacher retirement.
The Department of Education for Hawaii recently announced that it expect to hire half as many teachers to fill vacancies this year compared to normal. The reason for the lack of new teachers is that current teachers are not retiring in the numbers seen in the past.
The state of Michigan offered early retirement incentives this past spring in the hopes of attracting 29,000 teachers into retirement. The tally when the deadline for application passed was about half that number. Clearly, teachers are choosing to stay in the classroom rather than accept early retirement incentives.
The trend of declining retirements among baby boomer teachers is probably traceable to the collapse of their retirement accounts in the last two years. Add to this revenue shortfall for their personal finances, many of these teachers may have second homes whose value has fallen dramatically. Finally, the cost of health care is a much more pressing consideration for the baby boomer at this point in their careers. Putting it all together, teachers are seeing the prospect of retirement as less feasible given their personal fiscal position and uncertainty with the economy.
At least one state is seeing the opposite occurring. In New Jersey the retirement applications are on a trend to double this year. With Governor Christie squeezing state spending in order to balance the budget, teacher pensions are expected to come under scrutiny. This seems to have convinced more than a few teachers to jump ship before the state can cut their promised retirement pensions.
Whether teacher retirement is increasing or decreasing in a state or region, positions will open up for new teachers entering the field. They will come out of schools of education with fresh ideas and grand visions. They cannot replace the wisdom of a veteran retiring teacher, but we all had to start somewhere, so let’s see what they can do.
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Chapter One: A Century of Success






"If I could keep time in a bottle…"

Jim Croce, 1971








As full time educators we know all too well the challenges and opportunities of teaching in the information age. On the one hand we have students that wonder why they have to learn this stuff, and on the other hand we have various administrative and political factions attempting to impose simplistic assessments to answer the question "How'm I doing?" as popularized by a famous New York mayor. We cycle in and out of in-services where the latest Dr. Guru sagaciously overlooks the room and proclaims "There's a problem in education!" staring directly at you. You're thinking "I wonder if we're going to get out early?" All during the day you're planning the next week's classroom activities with a certain amusement and disdain for those few of your colleagues that actually take this stuff seriously. If you only knew the dehumanization that Dr. Guru was subjected to by the nation's airline industry to come to your school you would surely pity him, but, alas, he'll be gone tomorrow and you'll still have six periods of those bright faces to deal with.



Sound familiar? It happens everyday at thousands of places across the nation. It is a true growth industry in the next "great idea".



The sad circumstance is that there really is no mystery of learning that's waiting to be solved. We haven't been held back by a lack of technology or talent. Even the advances in brain-based learning and cognitive science only affirm what we have known for thousands of years and seriously discussed in the context of public education during the last 100 years. That well guarded secret is that we learn best by being actively involved, where the content is couched in a meaningful and relevant context, and where the criteria for performance reflect a real world standard.

Do Something: The Art and Science of Active Learning

When we set out to write this book our intent was to relate in a humorous and serious way the decades of experience that we have in project-based active learning as classroom teachers and professional development experts. Along the way we would highlight some of the tools that we used and point the interested reader in the direction of more resources. If as a result of our, at times, less that sacrosanct attitude we inadvertently offend some readers, we can only say get over it. The title of this book is DO SOMETHING! If you do something you may do it right or you may do it wrong. If you seek out good counsel your chances of doing something good will increase. If you do nothing then one year from now (or five years) you will still have the same choice to make, so why not make the right choice now.



What is the right choice? Keep reading, I hope we're not that obtuse that you don't get it, eventually. We're not going to bore you with theoretical pontification or gratuitously drop names, unless it makes us look particularly brilliant. We will relate some stories, present some real cases, apply some valuable tools, and generally have a good time. It is not our intention to present a scholarly review of teaching and learning. If that is what you are looking for we suggest you wade through Pascarella and Terenzini's voluminous review titled How College Affects Students. Rather it is our goal to present a 'how to' book that guides and instructs the reader in project-based, active learning. We also will support our work with examples from our own experience.