#WeirdEd Week 40- The State of the Weird

My fellow weird teachers, lend me your ears. I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.

No wait...

My fellow weird teachers, there comes a time in every young boy's life when he notices the fairer sex.

No...

My fellow weird teachers, WAAAZZZZZZZZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAPPP!

God no!

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury.

Wrong document. Hold on...

My fellow weird teachers, in the past forty weeks we have come a long way. Hard conversations have been had, as well as the most ridiculous conversations any teachers have ever had about teaching. We've been silly, we've been challenged, we've been more honest than I think many people thought possible in 140 characters. Bonds have been forged, ideas developed, stolen, and shared. #WeirdEd has grown into a formidable chat.

And still this isn't enough. We can do more. We must do more. The state of our Weird is strong, but still it can be stronger. Weirder. More weird. More Weirder.

I vow, as your Weird Teacher in Chief, to do more to be sure that #WeirdEd continues to grow and reflect the views of not only me, but many of the weird teachers in the world who are not me, but are just as weird in their own wonderful ways. There have been topics we have not touched, and they will be. I recognize that while I strive to make my weird both broad and deep I have blind spots both culturally and educationally and I will do what needs to be done to light those places. I will continue to reach out into the interwebs to find people with interesting things to say and weird things to teach us which we can then take to our children.

#WeirdEd will be as much about ourselves as teachers as it is about our students. #WeirdEd will be a bastion for safe conversation about difficult topics and also a bounce house of absolute nuttiness.

The state of our Weird is open and welcoming. Many have come to our shores over these past 40 weeks not knowing what to expect. Drawn by our neon flashing hashtag in the cold sea of similarity they lurk, unsure of what to expect. One by one they join and before they know it they realize that they do not need to be converted because the conversion happened long ago. They belong here with us.

Tonight's chat is about the state of our classrooms, the promises we make to ourselves and our schools and our students and the way we move forward.

Thank you. Shatner bless you, and Shatner bless the #WeirdEd family.