I have a confession. When I was in high school, I was a huge Jonas Brothers fanatic. Like, huge. MySpace was in at the time and I dedicated hours and hours of life every day to creating a webpage in MySpace dedicated completely to the Jonas Brothers. I connected with other fans, I wrote these stories called fanfics, fictional stories, by fans, about their idols. It was ridiculous! Looking back on it, I can't help but feel slightly embarrassed that this was how I spent my life for a year and a half.
On the flip side of that, my unhealthy obsession had it's good points. I learned html. I wasn't a pro, but I was pretty good! I understood what all the basic coding was and how to make links and text boxes for various things of various sizes and place graphics in specific places and link pages and hide pages and have all the posts have their own link so it all linked together! I don't know the specifics of it all, but I knew how to manipulate it. I learned the basics of photo editors, and picked up new information from other fans. My brain absorbed it all.
Unfortunately, for the last five and a half years, I've had no use for it. We've gotten a new computer at home, so I'm sure all my notes and files are long gone. They probably were not deemed worth saving. Now, however, I see the benefits of creating a similar project in Blogger for my classroom. To be able to make announcements and post downloadable pages for homework assignments in case someone lost theirs or something would be magnificent. Plus, it would get me some brownie points for using technology for my classroom. Being at school every other day makes it difficult to keep in step. Taking my classroom to the Word Wide Web seems like a logical solution. Most of my kids have iPhones and what not anyway. They can access the information whenever they'd like. All students have gmail accounts. I could find a way to use that little website for further digital connection. Safely, of course. It would take some research. But I have no doubt that it can be done. Somehow. The problem is that all the knowledge I'd acquired back in high school has taken a bolt for the door as my attention and brain power have been directed towards other things. I don't have a lot of spare time on my hands either. When I try to do some research on the basics of how to work things in Blogger (because, naturally, it's slightly different from a general html page), some of it still makes sense. Like opening and closing commands and so on and so forth, but my brain has so long been used in other capacities, I can feel the struggle to decode the Greek before my eyes.
Oh the frustration! I finally have good use for the knowledge and skill I'd refined on pointless activities and now it's gone! Will it be easier to learn now that I've done it once? Yes. But that doesn't make me feel too much better. I still feel like I'm starting over. I hate that feeling of defeat. I need to find a class or something. Someone to explain it to me and organize the learning process. It's a shame I don't have those notes anymore, at least to get me started again. I guess the only way to do it is to do it. Start a new blog and play around with it until I get the feel for how it works. That's what I did in MySpace. I had no idea what I was doing. None at all. But as I gained popularity through my writings in the Jonas world, I needed a cooler website. So piece by piece, I Googled and asked other MySpacers to make what I made of it. It's a fine project to be sure. It's just useless.
I'm determined to figure it out though. Before next school year starts, I want to have all my stuff together to introduce it. It's just gonna take a lot of work. So what I need is a scrapbook blog. Where it's okay to screw everything up for the sake of learning. Hey, if you've never failed, you've never tried anything new.
…right?
Saturday, December 14, 2013
Friday, December 13, 2013
So I Need to Get This Off My Chest for a Minute…
I love being a teacher. Have I mentioned that yet? I love being given the opportunity to help develop students' minds and broaden their thinking. I have so much fun creating lessons and materials. I've spent a lot of time re-creating how things are done in 6th grade Social Studies. I've hardly touched the textbook. I use it as the basic skeleton of my overall goal and fill in the pieces with my own research. I add muscle and color and life. To what they dedicate a small handful of pages, a section in a chapter, I give weeks to. How else are students going to have the time to think about the people and events and form their own opinions on issues? I hated the textbook from the beginning. So I tossed it. Four months later, I still don't regret it. It was the best decision for my teaching development.
That being said, I've cut out a lot of work for myself. It's easy to have students read the book and answer some questions on a page I copied from the resource paperback I got with the teacher's edition. It's hard to collect a variety of sources to use in creating your own pages to make your own textbook of sorts that's specifically planned out to stretch student's minds a little bit more each class period to allow them to better see the bigger picture of the world. It takes time and planning and a lot of effort to help students, especially in sixth grade, to draw conclusions and make connections across subject areas and topics. But it must be done. There's no other option. Textbooks, though a wonderful resource for general direction, serve little purpose to me beyond just that. There's so much more to be discovered, and I'd rather spend my time doing activities, group discussions, video responses, teaching how to question and become aware of thinking and the importance of being able to communicate thoughts throughout writing, etc., than flipping through glossy pages with glossy eyes, on the assumption that learning is taking place.
Learning should be exciting and engaging. Students should love coming to class, in anticipation of the new things they'll get to explore. Sadly, this attitude toward education is not encouraged in society, by parents, or, sadly, some teachers. Education is not seen as a luxury and a privilege, rather as a tedious requirement and dull chore. Where I get excited to do and learn something new, many others cringe because it's one more thing on the to do list.
I feel like I have a lot of good ideas that could bring some life to the stale air that is the environment I work in, but I don't feel like anyone really wants to listen to me. They express how they love what I'm doing and that I have a new way to teach in my room, but don't want to try it in theirs. When I try to give ideas, there's always an excuse. There's always a reason why it's too much for them, there has to be an easier way. Well, sometimes the best things don't come easily. Often, really, they take time and effort. As the world around us changes, the way we teach the population of that changing world needs to change too. That seems to make perfect sense to me. Instead, I receive the message of "this is how things have always been done"….it saddens my heart.
All the other teachers are having major behavior problems with a couple of students. They all kind of look to me out of the corner of their eyes as they all complain in team meetings, and I just sit and listen. I don't have any of those problems. Maybe I'm doing something right. But they wouldn't listen to my thoughts anyway. So I don't share them. When I walk into my room, it's my sanctuary. My escape. In that room, I can make the world come alive through my approach to Social Studies. I can gently prod students forward in our quest for deeper knowledge of the world in which we live and the past that molded it. They can waste my prep time with their complaints in team meetings three times a week, but they can never take my teaching.
I was born to do this, so do this I will.
I was never a vocal leader. In college, the volleyball coach tried to turn me into one, but I don't overflow with the right words or phrases. Instead, I just do what I know I need to do. I put 120% into completing the task before me. Rome wasn't built in a day. Troy didn't fall in a day. Veteran teachers don't change their philosophy in a day. I know what I'm doing is working. It's evident by the work I see turned in to me. I actually take the time to read and respond to everything my students write. All 76 of them. Through their written work they'll sometimes ask me a question and I'll take the time to write out a full response. No matter how many questions I get. Isn't that a better use of my time than yelling at kids for forgetting their pencil every day, or griping to another teacher about how Johnny is driving me up a wall?
I have my complaints, don't get me wrong. When a kid stabbed another student with scissors and threw a tantrum when he got in trouble, I was slightly annoyed. But losing pencils? Forgetting homework or books in lockers? That just doesn't seem worth it to me. Sure, my supplies are low and I have little to no classroom money. But I can buy a couple packs of pencils fairly inexpensively to help kids out instead of laying them out flat with my words when they left theirs in Art on the other side of the building.
So I will continue to trudge forward through the thick, wild jungle around me. The literacy coach can't wrap her head around how I've done what I've done or how I'm still going. I just do what I know to do. I learn from my mistakes. I learn from my students. And I keep pressing forward towards what I want, towards what I know to be true. I'm not perfect. If fact, there's many times I feel like a terrible teacher. I stumble and fall a lot. And it usually hurts really bad. I'm a first year teacher. A first year teacher who, because I'm only there every other day, does't get a whole lot of outside support. A teacher who has to work another job to stay afloat. Who falls behind. Who says the wrong thing. Who's organization shatters. I probably make more mistakes that I do progress sometimes. But I get up, brush myself off, and take another step. Grandma says I'm the "perserverer"of the family. I don't always feel like it. And sometimes, I owe it to my competitive nature more than my desire to get up again. Oh, you don't think I can teach, redesign curriculum and instruction, read all my kids' work, grade, plan, organize, turn the classroom inside out, and work 30 hours a week at Ruby Tuesday? Watch me. And they do. With wide eyes.
I have been given a purpose. That purpose is my passion. And that passion is my fuel to drive my forward.
Watch me.
That being said, I've cut out a lot of work for myself. It's easy to have students read the book and answer some questions on a page I copied from the resource paperback I got with the teacher's edition. It's hard to collect a variety of sources to use in creating your own pages to make your own textbook of sorts that's specifically planned out to stretch student's minds a little bit more each class period to allow them to better see the bigger picture of the world. It takes time and planning and a lot of effort to help students, especially in sixth grade, to draw conclusions and make connections across subject areas and topics. But it must be done. There's no other option. Textbooks, though a wonderful resource for general direction, serve little purpose to me beyond just that. There's so much more to be discovered, and I'd rather spend my time doing activities, group discussions, video responses, teaching how to question and become aware of thinking and the importance of being able to communicate thoughts throughout writing, etc., than flipping through glossy pages with glossy eyes, on the assumption that learning is taking place.
Learning should be exciting and engaging. Students should love coming to class, in anticipation of the new things they'll get to explore. Sadly, this attitude toward education is not encouraged in society, by parents, or, sadly, some teachers. Education is not seen as a luxury and a privilege, rather as a tedious requirement and dull chore. Where I get excited to do and learn something new, many others cringe because it's one more thing on the to do list.
I feel like I have a lot of good ideas that could bring some life to the stale air that is the environment I work in, but I don't feel like anyone really wants to listen to me. They express how they love what I'm doing and that I have a new way to teach in my room, but don't want to try it in theirs. When I try to give ideas, there's always an excuse. There's always a reason why it's too much for them, there has to be an easier way. Well, sometimes the best things don't come easily. Often, really, they take time and effort. As the world around us changes, the way we teach the population of that changing world needs to change too. That seems to make perfect sense to me. Instead, I receive the message of "this is how things have always been done"….it saddens my heart.
All the other teachers are having major behavior problems with a couple of students. They all kind of look to me out of the corner of their eyes as they all complain in team meetings, and I just sit and listen. I don't have any of those problems. Maybe I'm doing something right. But they wouldn't listen to my thoughts anyway. So I don't share them. When I walk into my room, it's my sanctuary. My escape. In that room, I can make the world come alive through my approach to Social Studies. I can gently prod students forward in our quest for deeper knowledge of the world in which we live and the past that molded it. They can waste my prep time with their complaints in team meetings three times a week, but they can never take my teaching.
I was born to do this, so do this I will.
I was never a vocal leader. In college, the volleyball coach tried to turn me into one, but I don't overflow with the right words or phrases. Instead, I just do what I know I need to do. I put 120% into completing the task before me. Rome wasn't built in a day. Troy didn't fall in a day. Veteran teachers don't change their philosophy in a day. I know what I'm doing is working. It's evident by the work I see turned in to me. I actually take the time to read and respond to everything my students write. All 76 of them. Through their written work they'll sometimes ask me a question and I'll take the time to write out a full response. No matter how many questions I get. Isn't that a better use of my time than yelling at kids for forgetting their pencil every day, or griping to another teacher about how Johnny is driving me up a wall?
I have my complaints, don't get me wrong. When a kid stabbed another student with scissors and threw a tantrum when he got in trouble, I was slightly annoyed. But losing pencils? Forgetting homework or books in lockers? That just doesn't seem worth it to me. Sure, my supplies are low and I have little to no classroom money. But I can buy a couple packs of pencils fairly inexpensively to help kids out instead of laying them out flat with my words when they left theirs in Art on the other side of the building.
So I will continue to trudge forward through the thick, wild jungle around me. The literacy coach can't wrap her head around how I've done what I've done or how I'm still going. I just do what I know to do. I learn from my mistakes. I learn from my students. And I keep pressing forward towards what I want, towards what I know to be true. I'm not perfect. If fact, there's many times I feel like a terrible teacher. I stumble and fall a lot. And it usually hurts really bad. I'm a first year teacher. A first year teacher who, because I'm only there every other day, does't get a whole lot of outside support. A teacher who has to work another job to stay afloat. Who falls behind. Who says the wrong thing. Who's organization shatters. I probably make more mistakes that I do progress sometimes. But I get up, brush myself off, and take another step. Grandma says I'm the "perserverer"of the family. I don't always feel like it. And sometimes, I owe it to my competitive nature more than my desire to get up again. Oh, you don't think I can teach, redesign curriculum and instruction, read all my kids' work, grade, plan, organize, turn the classroom inside out, and work 30 hours a week at Ruby Tuesday? Watch me. And they do. With wide eyes.
I have been given a purpose. That purpose is my passion. And that passion is my fuel to drive my forward.
Watch me.
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
A Short One
Well, I've remedied the template problem for the most part. I scrapped the old new one and found a new new one that doesn't look so out of whack. Does the title blend in and basically serve no purpose whatsoever? Yeah, sure, but life goes on.
I got a new toy on Black Friday. I broke down and bought a MacBook Air. My Dell was taking 20 minutes to start up, and seriously lagging with any task. I couldn't take it anywhere either. It has been a life saver. I can work on all my stuff for school, create all my pages, and take the whole thing with me wherever I need it to go. On the days I work doubles at Ruby Tuesday...no problem! I can pack this slim thing up and hit the road, and as soon as I open it up, it's ready to go. It's seriously like a miracle for me. As an added bonus, the battery runs forever. Well, to me, she who couldn't even jostle her computer or it would shut off, it lasts forever. I'm so pumped. Now I just need to pay it off...
My observation results were good! I scored much higher in some areas than I think I expected to, and I got some pointers on how I can reach for the next level as a teacher. According to the principal, I'm right where I need to be. I'm still doing a lot of crazy things trying to find the right pieces that work for me, my teaching style, and my students. I had one of the sixth grade teachers walk into my room today and gush about how cute everything was and then turn to leave saying "I need to go, this room makes me feel inadequate." Interesting. What would it take to get them to try some new things too? That's part of the reason I'm there right?
Some pieces of teaching are already a drag. Like grading. I hate grading. It just takes forever and I'd rather spend my time furthering my knowledge on a topic and planning lessons. But I know in order to make good lessons, I need to know where my students are in the process so I can teach to them instead of just over their heads. I've been getting pretty lazy with it though. I've been putting it off way too much. I have two rounds of current events to grade now, and I spent the weekend grading all of their pages they've done for their file books on Greece. I have some catching up to do, and prep to do for Thursday...golly, that's tomorrow now I guess isn't it...lots on my plate, as usual. If I could just get these current events out of the way, I might stand a better chance of accomplishing all I need to accomplish. I'm strongly considering canceling the next current event due date (the day right before Christmas Break) as a Christmas present both to the students and to me. I don't want to track down that many more late assignments either. No kid is going to want to do a current event for that day, and not a single one will remember to make it up when break is over if they need to. We'll see. I need to get some lesson plans on Rome laid out to make sure the kid leaving for vacation the week before break will have as much of the stuff as he needs before he leaves as possible...yeah, like that's gonna be easy.
Well, it's freezing in my room, and I work all day tomorrow...today...at Ruby Tuesday. So I'm gonna knock off and see what all I can get prepared to accomplish. I still believe...
I got a new toy on Black Friday. I broke down and bought a MacBook Air. My Dell was taking 20 minutes to start up, and seriously lagging with any task. I couldn't take it anywhere either. It has been a life saver. I can work on all my stuff for school, create all my pages, and take the whole thing with me wherever I need it to go. On the days I work doubles at Ruby Tuesday...no problem! I can pack this slim thing up and hit the road, and as soon as I open it up, it's ready to go. It's seriously like a miracle for me. As an added bonus, the battery runs forever. Well, to me, she who couldn't even jostle her computer or it would shut off, it lasts forever. I'm so pumped. Now I just need to pay it off...
My observation results were good! I scored much higher in some areas than I think I expected to, and I got some pointers on how I can reach for the next level as a teacher. According to the principal, I'm right where I need to be. I'm still doing a lot of crazy things trying to find the right pieces that work for me, my teaching style, and my students. I had one of the sixth grade teachers walk into my room today and gush about how cute everything was and then turn to leave saying "I need to go, this room makes me feel inadequate." Interesting. What would it take to get them to try some new things too? That's part of the reason I'm there right?
Some pieces of teaching are already a drag. Like grading. I hate grading. It just takes forever and I'd rather spend my time furthering my knowledge on a topic and planning lessons. But I know in order to make good lessons, I need to know where my students are in the process so I can teach to them instead of just over their heads. I've been getting pretty lazy with it though. I've been putting it off way too much. I have two rounds of current events to grade now, and I spent the weekend grading all of their pages they've done for their file books on Greece. I have some catching up to do, and prep to do for Thursday...golly, that's tomorrow now I guess isn't it...lots on my plate, as usual. If I could just get these current events out of the way, I might stand a better chance of accomplishing all I need to accomplish. I'm strongly considering canceling the next current event due date (the day right before Christmas Break) as a Christmas present both to the students and to me. I don't want to track down that many more late assignments either. No kid is going to want to do a current event for that day, and not a single one will remember to make it up when break is over if they need to. We'll see. I need to get some lesson plans on Rome laid out to make sure the kid leaving for vacation the week before break will have as much of the stuff as he needs before he leaves as possible...yeah, like that's gonna be easy.
Well, it's freezing in my room, and I work all day tomorrow...today...at Ruby Tuesday. So I'm gonna knock off and see what all I can get prepared to accomplish. I still believe...
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