TEACHING IN THE NEW CRAZY
ON THRIVING IN AN OVERWHELMING, POLITICIZED, AND COMPLICATED WORLD
From Page 1
Fellow educators, we need to call it like it is. Teaching young people today is a white-knuckle drive that can make us feel as though we’re losing our sanity. We’re supposed to help students think critically as our democracy crumbles, as trust gives way to tribalism, and as confidence in institutions such as our elections, the dollar, or vaccines gives way to doubt. Today’s debates are met with fear because the issues we face are overwhelming, politicized, and complicated. This has resulted in a new cynicism that is appearing in our classrooms.
“Why do I need to know ‘this’ when AI can do it for me?”
“Why learn about the world when it’s falling apart?”
“Why listen to adults when they caused this mess?”
These will be constant refrains in our classrooms, if they are not already.
My response is because one lesson can still change a life. A teacher can still empower our youth to right the wrongs of previous generations. A good question can still open anyone’s mind.
And yet our problems are too great for any one teacher to solve.
This realization can lead to burnout.
So, I’m writing this book to help you, regardless of what you teach — no matter where or when — and to start a conversation within our profession about how to thrive in what I will call “the new crazy,” or our “chaotic new normal.”
“Twenty years ago Glen Coleman was my teacher who did something exceptionally well — he created a space for students to explore big ideas and was courageous enough to let learning get messy as we looked for the answers, together. In this book, with humor, optimism and at times, stark realism, Coleman asks and seeks to answer the biggest questions educators face today — how to teach and reach students in the new chaotic normal. Offering actionable strategies to employ in and out of the classroom, Coleman reminds us that, ‘one lesson can still change a life.’ It did for me.”
A Teacher’s Teacher
Dr. Glen Coleman is a pioneer in student-centered learning with technology. His dissertation was awarded with distinction for evoking new approaches to help students cultivate their voice, grit, and curiosity. In 2019 Glen was named an HP Teaching Fellow for innovative and powerful teaching. A Teacher Consultant through the National Writing Project and featured in The New York Times for his and his students’ research on AI, Glen has also been praised as a classroom innovator by former NJ Commissioners of Education. He is the author of two books: 100 or Nothing: Reimagining Success in the Classroom and Teaching in the New Crazy: On Thriving in an Overwhelming, Politicized, and Complicated World.