The Contra Costa Times hosts a blog called My First Year, in which a handful of young teachers in Oakland write (or are supposed to write) about
their harrowing experiences. In a recent post, one of the participants notices that--um--she and her fellow bloggers haven’t been posting a whole lot. (There have been only nine posts since early September.) Is this, she wonders, because they’re all simply swamped, or--more interestingly--because they’re afraid to say too much? She writes, with apparent trepidation:
But recently I've spoken with many colleagues and friends who are shocked that I'm participating in this blog as a new teacher, which leads to wonder if we're avoiding this task because of the concern about our professional status. I will not be tenured until I step into a classroom on the first day of my third year teaching. Until then I'm considered probationary. ...
Am I risking my job by writing this blog?
It’s too bad since, as she notes, the blog has given her the sort of external feedback that (so we’re often told) new teachers rarely get.