See you in September....

"Do you care to be the layer of the bricks that seal your fate?
Or would you rather be the architect of what we might create?"
- "Architects" by Rise Against

These song lyrics means a lot to me right about now. In my second post on this blog (which was over a year ago) I referenced them in the context of how the year didn't turn out like I had originally planned. This time around it's a little different. I've been teaching for 6 years now and for the first time in forever (yes, that's a Frozen reference) I am excited about what I will be doing in September.

This fall, I will be moving to a new school for the first time in 5 years - Hill Freedman World Academy. I'm joining an grades 6-9 IB school that is expanding to 6-12 over the next 3 years. I'm looking forward to being a part of the team that completes the expansion and make big things happen. This summer I'm going to start getting ready for a new challenge and hopefully that will lead to some blog posts. If not, I'll (hopefully) be back in the fall with some great stories and ideas.

Have a Great Summer!!!

Why has it been 6 months since my last blog post?

Your guess is as good as mine. 

I started this blog last year with the thought of getting better at teaching and sharing that journey with whoever felt the need to read about it. I said at the beginning that I would post when I could and put out a good amount of thoughts in a short time. Since school ended last year, I just stopped blogging. Completely. 

I'm not happy about that. I'm not happy that I set out to do something last year and just didn't follow through. I'm having some of the same classroom and overall issues this year that I have had in the past and I don't think I'm doing everything I can about it. There are tremendous people on Twitter that really know what they're doing. Many of these people are a DM or mention away and I'm not taking advantage of that. 

What are my excuses? I don't have one. In May I wrote about my goals for this year. SBG, PBL, 20time, etc, etc. ice tried some of them out. I've had a little success and a little notsomuch. What I haven't done is write about it. I haven't reached out for assistance or advice. I haven't taken the time to self-evaluate. In short, I've done everything that I don't want my students to do. 

This is my 6th year of teaching. I was thinking today about how I want to want to come to school each day. Right now, there are days that are tough and days that are great. There are a myriad of reasons for that but in the end, most of them are just excuses. 

I want to use this post as my starting over point. Maybe I won't post all the time but I need to get my thoughts out of my head and into the world. Hopefully someone can see one or two of them and point them in the right direction for me.

See you soon. (Not sure when, but definitely not 6 months from now.)

What exactly is EdCamp Philly?

I can't wait for tomorrow morning. Not because it's going to be Saturday, but because I'm going to EdCamp Philly - my first "unconference." I'm excited to get a chance to meet a bunch of new people and to hear and see all sorts of ideas about 21st Century Education. Anyone that I know that has gone to an unconference always tells me it's a great experience and that I should get to one as soon as I can. Last year I missed the signup deadline, but this year - IT'S ON!

So, what exactly is EdCamp Philly? To be honest, I'm not sure. 

Here's what I do know. It's about educators and learners getting together to share ideas. It's a place to meet scores of passionate people who want the best for their students and want to help others find that same passion. It's going to be a day of new experiences, inspirations, motivation and ideas for me. 

Finally, and most importantly, I have a good feeling it's going to be fun!

What are my plans for next year?

As June gets closer and closer, I start to think about what I've done this year (and the previous four) and what I want to do next year. Every year I know there are lessons and topics that I've covered that have gone well and others I'd just as soon pretend never even happened. In five years of teaching, I know that I've definitely improved on some of my practices but I feel that parts of what I do are stuck in a rut. We live in an age where the power of technology is everywhere yet I still have not completely harnessed that power for good.

In five years, I've given lectures on topics and asked students to take notes and complete classwork and homework. I've followed the curriculum that my district has set and used that as my gauge of student progress. There have also been times where I've created projects that require the students to do some research or figure main points out on their own. At times, I've turned some classes loose with a basic concept and watched them take it to places that they didn't think they could. I've had boring classes and exciting classes, great ideas and cover-your-eyes-awful ideas. On my own time, I've spent hours reading and thinking about what I want to try in my classroom (20% time, flipped classroom, social media, project based learning, and more) and never completely convincing myself that I can do it. In short, I have been conducting my classes in a 20th Century Classroom and not the 21st Century Classroom I believe I should have. As I look through the list of qualities of 20th and 21st Century Classrooms that Dr. Z has posted, I realize that there are so many opportunities that my students and I are missing out on experiencing.

Five years as a teacher is a big deal to me. I've had multiple careers (not just jobs) and the longest amount of time I have spent in any one of them is about four years. Teaching is what I plan to do for the rest of my working life. I know that I want to be in this field for the next 30 years, but I also know that I need to make it more enjoyable and effective for me and my students.

So, in no particular order, I give you my list of Things to Do Next Year...

How do you learn to accentuate the positive?

This is one of those questions that I've been trying to answer for a long time. I try to think of myself as an optimist. I like to think that I can find the good in most people and situations. Unfortunately, I find myself dwelling (obsessing?) on the negative more often that I should. The worst feeling is that I know I should focus more on the successes of my students than on my failures as a teacher. There is so much more value in watching a student go through the process of learning and striving to reach their potential than overanalyzing something that didn't turn out the way I planned (wanted? hoped?).

I'm not naive enough to think that I will ever completely master the idea of being a teacher. There are too many variables and changes in education for that to happen. I know that I will get better at what I do. I know that I'm better (at least a little) now than I was 5 years ago. The problem is that I don't tell myself that enough and I let the negative energy take control every now and then. At the risk of sounding cliche, all I want to do is be happy and enjoy getting up for school every day. 

What I really need to do is to find ways to remind myself daily that some of my current students will be following in the footsteps of my former students.

There will be more of: 

• The quiet and determined Valedictorian/Runner/Head of Everything who focused on her work and making herself better while some of her classmates played around.
• The goofy and focused Barber/All-Star Running Back/Sprinter who did what was asked of him for his teams to win and never complained when others received recognition.
• The middle-of-the-pack, good-at-math student who wanted to be an architect but ended up becoming a teacher by way of Drexel, Holland Architects, CGinteractive, NAPCO, NESN, Sports Authority, Finish Line and Drexel again.

Those first two hopefully know who they are and how much of an inspiration they are to me. That last guy, hopefully he finds a way to look in the mirror in the morning and realize that this will work out. The success stories are out there and are being rewritten. Every. Single. Day. I guess I just have to make more of an effort to find them.

Why are you answering all of these questions?

Plain and simple - to get ideas out of my head and into the world. Sometimes my questions will be ones that I'm trying to find the answers to. At other times, my questions will be ones I ask myself or that I think would be interesting to babble on about. I don't know how often I'm going to do this but my goal is to put up some thoughts a few times a week. Maybe once, maybe more, only time will tell.

One aspect of this blog that I'm looking forward to is to use it as a roadmap of my journey as a teacher. I've been teaching for almost five years now and still feel like I'm just getting started. There are many strategies and techniques that I want to try in my classroom but I haven't attempted many of them for some reason (could be time management, fear, uncertainty, or a million others). I hope that I can use this platform as a way to find help and receive feedback on what I'm trying to do and improve my classroom and teaching in the process. I have been casually following some great educators on Twitter for the last year or so and it's finally time for me to jump in and take some chances at making what I do more enjoyable, engaging and rewarding.

Why did you become a teacher?

As I sit down to finally start to take my thoughts out of my head and put them out into the world, this is the first question that comes to mind. Before I can answer that, I need to give you an idea of what this blog is going to be about. Anyone who knows me, knows that I can ramble on and on about different topics and that I try to see both sides of every story. I will never be a person to say that I know it all and that everything I feel is right. In the end, what I say is what I think and feel based on what I know or think I know.

My goal with this blog is just to answer questions. I'm not sure how often I will post and I'm definitely not sure if anyone will find any of this interesting. If it happens that you like something, AWESOME! If not, sorry for wasting your time.

Now, where was I? That's right....."Why did you become a teacher?"