So, the never-ending question… how do you sustain M.A.R.E. in your classroom when there is lack of support either from district, administration or sadly… colleagues.
I like to think that my school has seen the best and worst of this scenario, though I know we’re certainly not alone. With current legislation adopting the “ever-so-popular” philosophy “Do more with less”, educators and administrators are feeling the heavy burden of maintaining high expectations and performance as the past, with less time and less funding now and in the future.
With that said, it goes without saying that programs such as M.A.R.E.can prove challenging to implement and maintain within a school or classroom setting. I know for me, like many others, truly fell in love with M.A.R.E. and what it was about. Though the program built awareness about the ocean, for me it was more about building community… on many levels.
Obviously, I can only speak from what I see happeing within my teaching environment. As of late, I’ve had to maintain M.A.R.E. by seeking outside opportunities and uncountable hours of volunteered time, not only by me, but from other colleagues and students. This brings me to my purpose in creating this topic…when odds are against you, how do you find the time, energy, passion, etc. to sustain something that has brought us so much opportunity?
My hope with this post is that people will feel motivated contribute thoughts, share ideas, grant opportunities that may help other educators sustain M.A.R.E. within their classrooms/ schools. We’ve built this program up together and I feel we have some resposibility to give back and take some of the load off of our team members. This program will not survive without our input, so please, respond to this post. Tell your friends, teachers to respond to this post.
I look forward to hearing your thoughts and starting a productive dialogue to help move M.A.R.E. forward.
