Читать книгу Riding the Wave - Jeremy S. Adams - Страница 15

This book is a labor of love written by a teacher in the middle of his career. Twenty years in the classroom affords a unique perspective as it situates a teacher in a position as neither a novice nor a veteran on the cusp of retirement. On one hand, the beginning of my teaching career feels like forever ago. When I walked into my very first class, Bill Clinton was president, the 9/11 attacks were still three years from occurring, and Facebook and the iPhone did not exist. On the other hand, retirement and the wonders of a life free from the school calendar’s constraints still feel so far out of reach that there is little use in trying to imagine them.

The good news is the mature perspective that comes from having taught for two decades means I have enough wonderful classroom memories to know that high-sounding phenomena—splendor, enchantment, enthrallment—are not just the province of movies and musicals. You don’t have to visit Hollywood or Broadway to know these phenomena are real. They can, and should, make an appearance in the classroom. Sometimes, in the turbulence of change and disruption, the magic seems to vanish. This book is an attempt—albeit a modest one—to help teachers find this magic and to put it back where it belongs: in the classroom.