Teacher Tired

I don't have children, so I'm not entirely sure what it's like to be exhausted with a newborn.  However, I know that I've never known a tired like "Teacher Tired" at the beginning of the school year.  This is my fifth year teaching, and each first week of school, it never fails that on a particular evening I will find myself face down on the living room carpet passed out for at least three hours after school.  If I'm lucky on that day to first lay down on my bed, my cheek will have a pillow-case line instead of carpet indentations when my husband comes home to find me sacked out still in my school clothes and shoes. This year, I made it to Thursday before that happened.  This is my definition of progress, ladies and gentlemen.

The exhaustion generally becomes evident in my ability to articulate my words later in the week.  This was true in my last class of the day Friday.  When explaining that I allow my students to eat in class, I had to address the peanut/tree nut allergy some of my students have.  I pointed out that I have several students with a wide range of nut allergies and that students who choose to eat in my classroom need to be aware of whether any food they eat in class contains peanuts or tree nuts. I also made a point to tell them that they need to check the ingredient label because some foods contain ground nuts or are made in plants which process nuts for other foods.  Keep in mind that I teach 9th graders.  Yes, they picked up on the ridiculous amount of times I said the word, "nuts," and we had a good laugh at my expense.

As if that wasn't enough, the next activity I had planned was a ball toss game. You can bet they picked up on that as well.

And of course that wasn't the end of it, because I was just so exhausted but still trying to keep my energy and pace up for the sake of my last class of the week.  I explained that in this game, they needed to make sure they called the name of the person they would toss the ball to and said, "This is the first lesson of Success 101, I mean Sex 1.0, I mean Success 1.0."  Yes, tongue-tied me, simply trying to get the name of the course correct in order to avoid student confusion, somehow managed to twist the title of my class from Success to Sex (For those of you who don't know, the class was called Success 101 last year, and this year is known as Success 1.0). Needless to say, I needed a moment. Graciously, my students allowed me one.

On the positive side of the week, my students are wonderful so far. With Success 1.0, I am allowed to spend a little more time than most teachers on "get-to-know-you" games and other ice breakers.  Due to the fact that we have spent the week getting to know each other without having to focus on a content area which is tested in April, I feel like I know these students the way I usually don't get to know them until about the middle of the first semester. I can't wait to continue building relationships with these students and, hopefully, guide them in the direction of a meaningful career and build skills they will need in the "real world."  So far, this is a TON more fun than teaching prepositions and sentence structure.

One of my favorite activities which I had my students do this week was the "Crap List." Excuse the language if it is offensive to you, but I hear the word, "crap," in my classroom on a daily basis, so I decided to make use of it in an educational way.  Credit for this idea goes to University of Central Florida head coach, Todd Dagenais.  The idea behind the Crap List is that students create a list of things they hate/dislike about classes, group work, the way students treat each other, teacher strategies, etc. at school.  They then take this Crap List and, in conjunction with each other and the teacher, set the expectations for the course.  After that (we haven't gotten to this step yet), students define some of the things on the list (i.e. what does it mean to be disrespectful?), then they come up with a way to respectfully remind classmates when they are doing something that has been established as unacceptable in the classroom. Lastly, the Crap List is posted for all to see and the students are held to these expectations by both the teacher and other students.

I feel that this is beneficial because I don't have to be the bad guy. I am simply the facilitator and the students get to have a ton of say in how class and group work will be handled.  Then, if a student violates the Crap List, I am supported by the list, other students, and justified in any consequences I give because the student agreed and helped to come up with the terms listed in the first place.

I use this as the first project (PBL project) of the semester forcing students into collaboration and communication with one another.  They take ownership because they created it.  Further, in regards to Arkansas' implementation of TESS (Teacher Excellence and Support System), and the domains regarding classroom procedures and class management, student involvement in the regulation of student behavior moves a teacher from a 3 to a 4 if done well.

So, overall, this was a great first week of school.  Although several kinks arose in the first week plan at our school, I feel that my glass is more than half full.  I'm looking forward to Monday, our school's first ever Tiger Camp for 9th graders (more information to come on this next week), and to a really great volleyball season (matches start after Labor Day). I hope your week was as wonderful as mine. I also hope that you get some rest this weekend so that no one ends up face down on the living room rug next week.

Information overload and flying teachers

PBL, 21st century skills, Genius Hour, tech tools galore--today was the culmination of the best week and a half of professional development I have ever had. I somehow found myself relating the process of making wreaths to drugs--in front of other professionals--while projecting a slide illustrating the Pinterest logo. The week before that, I found myself flying through the air tethered to eight other people, walking across a human ladder, and doing kart wheels in the middle of the street at night...all in the name of STUDENTS!!

I'll start with the "tame" one. This week I spent my time at our district's 21C Learning Symposium for this year's 21c grant recipients. While at times I felt overwhelmed with all of the information and new tools, I genuinely grew a lot as a teacher. I had to get outside of my control-freak box more than a few times and let myself feel utterly lost in how to do project base learning. But, tonight, as I reflect on my week, I feel more excited than ever to get back in the classroom and have students solve real world problems by using the content of my classes. This way of teaching sounds like a no-brainer, especially considering that even I learn and retain info better when I have a purpose for using it!!

Here are some of the best tools we discussed and used this week:

•Today's Meet

•Padlet

•Symbaloo

•Google docs and Google forms 

There are so many more tools and I'm sure I'm leaving great ones out, but his week really packed in so much information that my brain almost exploded on more than one occasion. 

Now, to the crazy one. Let me start by saying that this was the only PD I have ever been to where there was no agenda, activewear was required, and sunscreen was advised. The Success 1.0 (Keystone) teachers went to a workshop in order to learn what our class was going to be all about...it's a new class at our school and we are (all but one) learning the standards together. 

What we found was that this class IS relationships. We were introduced to so many trust-builders, ice breakers, team builders, and collaborative games that will help us facilitate real world relationships and task completion. 

Now, for your real question: how and why was I flying through the air tethered to eight other people? This was an element that was a part of a high ropes course this teacher had BUILT. A student had designed the element after completing the course, demonstrating immense confidence and skill in this realm. Basically, what happens is 8 people--reindeer--hook up to one end of a cable. I'm hooked to the other. The cable is connected to a pulley (or some mechanism which I do not have a name for) that hangs from a cable that is suspended high off the ground at a perpendicular angle to the one I'm hooked to. The reindeer take off running and, as they do, I jog a bit too, and am quickly catapulted into the air, possibly flipping over the cable. It was pretty amazing. Crazy. Scary. Really, there is no lack of words to describe the feeling. But the really funny part was when I started jogging forward and screaming in anticipation, but my reindeer hadn't taken off yet. I almost ran into a tree before realizing that I was still on the ground!!! If only someone had it on video...

Honestly, after experiencing both workshops, I can actually see lots of connections. Keystone will help students use real world skills to build relationships, learn how to communicate with others, think critically, and collaborate to create things (BTW, these are your 21st century skills). PBL is content based, but requires real world application of the content, forcing student inquiry and the 4 Cs in order to master the standards. PBL is Keystone with content. 

For once, at least a few pieces of the education puzzle make sense to me. Finally. After a bachelors degree, a masters degree, student internship, and four years of teaching, this job is finally making some sense. 

Are you sure you are in the right place?

Well, are you?  Did you mean to stumble into my crazy teacher-coach domain?  I only have five years of teaching experience...and I'm a Health teacher for goodness sakes!!

Well, proceed at your own risk. Who knows? You may get a few laughs at least.

On a serious note, I am very passionate about my job. After four wonderful  years of teaching English, I am switching gears and will be teaching Health and Keystone this year.  I could not be more excited.  I get to teach the classes where the content is relationships. You know that dream class, where all students have amazing relationships, treat each other and you with respect, and you all leave the school year a little bit sad because you did, in fact, become a family? I love those classes, but I only get one, maybe two, of those classes a year...and that's if I'm lucky.  Now, I get to facilitate classes where that is the expectation for each class, not just one or two.  And it's my content!!!  Maybe I'm being a little idealistic, but that's what the curriculum says I'm supposed to do...and "they" have even sent me to amazing trainings where I got to learn games and trust building activities I can do with my kids.  Stick around...I'm sure you will get some laughs at my expense in that area for sure.

Also, I am an assistant coach for our high school girls' volleyball team.  This is the part of my job that I have always wanted to do...since I started playing volleyball when I was eleven...I promise, I always knew this was what I wanted to do.  The teaching part came about because I didn't figure I'd be able to get a job coaching if I couldn't also teach something.  Turns out that you can get a job only coaching, but you can't do it coaching girls' volleyball...not here anyway. Who am I kidding? Not anywhere!  Volleyball has always been a passion of mine, partially because of all of the wonderful relationships I got out of playing and being around the sport for so many years.  I had always considered myself to be a coach first, and then a teacher...turns out that God leads us to what we are meant to do by way of those things we love to do.  I consider myself a teacher-coach (hence, Mrs. Coach, which is the major point of confusion in my classes for the first week of school--which title my should students address me by).  I love teaching kids and learning from them, whether that's on the volleyball court or in the classroom.

Further, I was lucky enough this year to be a recipient of what my district calls the "21st Century Grant." This program gives a certain number of teachers in the district a class set of laptops as a learning tool for student use.  As grant recipients, we are expected to employ some of the latest and greatest ideas in education: project-based learning, 21st century skills, critical thinking/problem-solving skills, and the like.  I say latest, because I'm still relatively new to teaching (this is only year 5 for me).  A lot of this stuff has been around for a while, but for some reason, we are told that it's new...yea, and in 30 years, we'll see it again, but it will be called something else, right?

At the risk of boring you to tears on my first post, let me sum this up.  I don't believe that I'm some amazing teacher who has infinite wisdom to share with the world.  That's not why I'm blogging.  I'm choosing to start a blog on these topics because I don't know everything.  In fact, there is very little I do know...I'm learning every day from you and people like you.  I love to read, learn, and try new things in class in order to become a better teacher, and ultimately, to help our students become better people and citizens...just like you do.  I want to learn from you, share the things you know with others, and if I do happen upon some original ideas of my own, I'll share them here.  Major points of interest for me include the following:

• teaching/coaching generation iY
• educational technology
• project-based learning
• health and wellness
• trust/team-building
• student collaboration
• leadership
• professional learning communities

I plan to post regularly (for me, that means weekly), but I won't fight it if the mood strikes more often than that.  Feel free to comment, post links, or just laugh at/with me.  Welcome!!