After watching the documentary “Waiting for Superman,” Ryan Sieli, junior, tweeted a joke that caught the attention of Michelle Rhee, former D.C. chancellor for public schools, and it was all history from there.
“She saw [my joke] and started following me,” Sieli said. “I saw that she was following me, so I offered to send her a paragraph, so I did and she liked it.”
In fact, Rhee liked the paragraph so much that she the asked Sieli to write a blog for the website studentsfirst.org, which strives for educational reform.
Sieli said he thought it was really cool that Rhee asked him to write the blog.
“I didn’t think she’d want me to do that,” Sieli said.
“There were teachers on there who had been teaching for 20 years, and administrators too. It made me feel really good that she would put me up there with them.”
Among the topics that Sieli plans to blog about are the politics of the educational system, such as tenure, how districts hire and fire teachers, and the policy of “last in, first out.”
The main problem with this system, Sieli said, is that districts end up having to fire more teachers to make up for the difference because the “first ins” have lower wages.
“With ‘last in, first out,’ we lose really good teachers,” Sieli said. “It’s not so much of a problem in Rockwood, but in more rural schools.”
Sieli was asked to write a blog entry about his favorite teacher, and he chose to write about Ruth Bontrager, math teacher.
“I thought it was really, really sweet,” Bontrager said. “I was honored.”
Bontrager described Sieli as a good student who was fun to have in class and was very happy Sieli chose to write about her. Bontrager said she thought there needs to be more individual teacher appreciation and the attention from the blog post was nice.
“It was a complete surprise,” Bontrager said. “I wasn’t expecting it.”
Sieli said he has sent most of his entries in already, and that an editor at the website is currently looking at them. The amount his posts appear on the website all depends on how many views they get.
Sieli said this experience will benefit him in the long run.
“I am taking initiative in my education,” Sieli said.