Eric E Castro

Intellectual Sprawl

Urban sprawl is bad; intellectual sprawl is good

Faculty Development Board Report

In late-January, I appeared before the Faculty Development Board for what is colloquially referred to locally as “tenure.” Embedded below is the report written by that board and submitted to the principal.

FDB Memo to Principal by Eric E Castro

The commendations in the report are not worth comment here, but I will address the recommendations, as those are what I’ll be held accountable for over the following six years.

Academics

  1. Sharing what I do in terms of curriculum and instruction is easy, but getting others to pay attention is challenging. I share most of what I do, here; but in this attention economy, getting others to engage in similar reflection or in dialogue is a bit beyond my control.
  2. I continue to work on developing the blended-learning cutticulum in my World History 2 course, and I continue to share the products of that labor with my colleagues who teach the same course.
  3. I am excited about building more opportunities for student choice in the WH2 curriculum; this will be part of the blended-learning curriculum.

Co-curriculars

  1. I look forward to continuing to moderate the Art & Publicity club, especially as we continue to transition from paper-based posters to digital artwork. Creating a system to track requests and monitor work will require some thought.
  2. There has been a recent upheaval with the CyberPatriots club, or at least, with the members, and so we’ll see how that evolves in the coming years.
  3. I will continue to offer my services to the Assistant Principal of Student Affairs annually.

Spiritual Formation

  1. I just bought and downloaded the Kindle version of Finding God in All Things and am looking forward to reading it; more than that, I’m looking forward to chatting about it with someone.
  2. I have already worked on – and will continue to work on – developing specific WH2 lessons that build on issues around culturally responsive teaching.
  3. I just bought and downloaded the Kindle version of Not Less Than Everything and am looking forward to reading it; more than that, I’m looking forward to chatting about it with someone.

That should all keep me busy and entertained for the next six years.