yellowEDbetter

Welcome to the new.

Thanks to an article on the meaning of yellow by Jennifer Bourn at Bourn Creative (appropriately titled, Color Meaning: Meaning of The Color Yellow), I've had an epiphany about how to approach this space. Yes, of course, school buses are yellow, but that's too easy. "Yellow, the color of sunshine, hope, and happiness, has conflicting associations." Educators deal in hope, yet that hope is constantly tested. We see the best of what the future can be while dealing with some of the worst the present has to offer. 

"The color yellow is a spontaneous and unstable color." Our best educators often exude these qualities. They respond to student interests, seize on teachable moments, and excite students to explore things in their free time. There exists the distinct possibility that at any given time when you walk into a classroom that the lesson plans have been *gasp* put on hold for something the teacher deemed more relevant in students' lives.

There's a lot that goes into education these days. It's not just creating an educated group of citizens anymore. We've added, we've crammed, we've coaxed, we've smashed, we've maneuvered new mandates and initiatives into the work that is required of educators until there just seems to be no more that will be able to be asked -

- and then we ask for more. We have to do it better. All of it, and it's up to us to do it.

So that's what we're addressing here at yellowEDbetter. All of it. All the mandates. All the stories. All the ideas that you hear of but haven't tried. All of the things you've tried but have no idea how to incorporate into your everyday routines.

We're going to talk about pre-service teacher programs. We're going to talk about hunting for jobs. We're going to talk mentoring. We're going to talk about lesson plans. You know those people who judge you? We're going to talk about them and their work, too. We'll talk phones and internets and fake news and memes. Then we'll talk the parents, the children, the communities. The hope, the happiness, the spontaneity, and the instability. It's all here, and it's all yellow. Kind of - it's complicated.

Welcome to the new.