People of Note: Tim Childers
Tim Childers is the Vice-Principal of my son's school, Knoxville's L&N STEM Academy, but he is also someone whom I think is an innovative thinker and educator. He is also my friend.
Recently, his yearbook picture was used for media purposes and I joked with him, "friends don't let friends have horrid head shots printed in publications," so I offered to do a quick session with him while he was available on a rainy afternoon.
And Tim took away more from his session than images, it seems. He blogged about his experience and how there was a lesson to be learned:
And here’s my take away. You’ve been very patient to wait for it.
In the classroom, everyone doing the same thing from class to class may be effective if you are trying to work on a factory model of education. But the bottom line is that it is flat, forced, and fake. It won’t have the impact for which you hope.
To teach, to teach effectively, one must be individualized. And a bit uncomfortable in the process. You need to be stretched. Contorted. And pushed to do things you ordinarily would not do. Kids relate to that like the camera lens relates to weirdly contorted poses.
Yearbook photos have their place. In yearbooks. Don’t be a yearbook photo in the classroom. Be your own personal headshot. The difference will amaze you.