It's Never Too Late to Make Changes

I started posting on this blog again around the time of EduCon 2.6 this year. I was able to meet some great people over that weekend and had my first opportunity to talk with someone in person about one of my posts. The information I took out of the conversation sessions is priceless and I still have a list of people I want to follow on Twitter and communicate with about ideas that were shared.

The biggest takeaway I had from EduCon and the weeks that have followed is that it is never too late to make changes. I've been very set in the ways of what I do, even though it never has the results I'm looking for. Making changes has either been "too much work" or "too much of a risk" for me. Once I started really thinking about what I needed to do, I started to realize that "too much work" is a sorry excuse for just saying "I don't feel like it right now." As for "too much of a risk," since I haven't been getting the results I was hoping to get, I figured what do I have to lose.

For your enjoyment (mostly mine, but you are welcome to enjoy them too) here are four major changes that are taking place with me right now.

• Change 1: Classwork System
• Change 2: Gamification
• Change 3: CrossFit/Whole30/Paleo
• Change 4: Making and Tracking Goals

EduCon and a New Outlook

Day One of EduCon 2.6 at Science Leadership Academy is in the books and to say it was informative and amazing would be an understatement of epic proportions. I enjoyed meeting a bunch of people who have great ideas and sound advice and was fortunate enough to add to my own little network of connected educators. I could spend a lot of time going over everything I took out of the first day (and maybe it will become a post of its own after Day Two) but I want to just write about my biggest takeaway.

Since I started this blog last year, I've posted questions to myself and tried my best to come up with answers. At times I wrote reactively and sometimes wonder if I still feel the same way about my initial thoughts. The beauty of all of this is that meeting up with other people can give me a new perspective on what I originally thought and allow me to change how I view those original posts (which could make for an interesting new post). After today, I'm starting to get a better sense of what I can do about whatever situation I am facing. Being able to spend the day with a school full of thinkers, innovators, high-achievers, and whatever other descriptor you can think of shows me that it is possible to make this whole teaching thing work. If all I am going to do is ask myself questions about why or how things are the way they are, I'm not going to get anything done. Update: I'm not against questions as a way to start a conversation, but I have a nasty habit of trying to find questions that are irrelevant or have no answer and use them as excuses. 

In the grand scheme of things, I'm still a relatively new teacher and I know I haven't mastered everything I want to master yet (and really, what teacher ever will?). What I need to do is to remind myself to look for the answers to the relevant questions in my world. There are thousands of people out there blogging and on Twitter that can help me. If I can stick to that, it might not be smooth sailing, but at least I'll have an idea of where I want to go and the support to get me there.

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.)

Quick reflection on last period....

Have to get this out before I forget. Just spent a good half-hour talking with my students. It was an enjoyable back-and-forth that touched on issues in the district and our school. It's so refreshing to see these students as citizens that want to make changes. We shared ideas on how to make the school better and talked about why it was important to us. It amazes me that they see so much going on that they disagree with but don't realize how much change they can create if they tried. 

When I asked some students if they told any administrators about something that they felt was wrong, one girl replied, "They wouldn't believe us anyway, we're just students. The principal would only listen to a teacher telling them that."

That is exactly what has to change.

Our students need to feel empowered to control their own destiny and to try make a difference. They need to be able to create an environment that they are proud of. My job as a teacher is to show them that it is possible and then get out of their way.

Where do I go from here?

Wow, it's almost June. It seems like it was September the other day and here I am getting ready for the last 2-3 weeks of school. I constantly try to reflect on what I do and how the year has been going but June always seems to be when I really think about it. Questions abound in my head, like:

• Why did this work?
• Why didn't that work?
• What was I thinking when I tried that?
• Will it get easier next year?
• What can I change for next year?
• Where do I go from here?

Most of these questions are for internal reflection that I can hopefully use to get better. The last two are the ones that take up most of my thoughts.

What can I change for next year?

There are many times that I find myself asking this question. At this point, the list of answers is probably endless. Obviously, there is no perfect environment or school or classroom or teacher but there are some that are close. Each year I try to fix what didn't work in the past. Some changes have worked, others notsomuch. I think my biggest problem has been to pick and choose small changes on top of some aspects that haven't been working. A few weeks ago, I wrote about what I wanted to do next year (after some more reading, standards-based grading is getting added to that list) and now I'm starting to think more and more about how to do it. Using Twitter has opened up my eyes to all of the possibilities for my classroom and has made this year the best for me in terms of my own professional development. 

Where do I go from here?

This is more figurative question than a literal one. I'm not leaving my school and I'm still going to be teaching math next year, but I'm at a fork in terms of my philosophy and practice. I believe that my school and district focus too much on the grade and not enough on the process. Too many of my students worry about what they need to do to get an A, B or C and not enough about how much further to take their understanding. Before the end of this year, I hope to have a clear idea of what I will be specifically teaching next year and a plan on what to do. I'm actually looking forward to the idea of rebranding my teaching style for next year. 

At times I feel like the picture-perfect world of students engaged and wanting to learn is unattainable. Then, I read a blog or follow a link and see examples of it happening everyday. In the end my personal goals as a teacher are to look forward to every day of the year and to be disappointed that the year is ending because I will have to wait 2 whole months to get started again. If I have to change almost everything to get there, I'm willing to take that chance.

What did I take home from EdCampPhilly?

Quick answer: A couple of stickers, a list of smart, resourceful people to follow on Twitter, and inspiration.

This past Saturday, I attended my first unconference at EdCamp Philly. It was amazing! There was so much going through my head that it has taken me until now to finally take everything in and process it. The aspect of EdCamp that stood out the most to me was seeing so many educators learners willing to take their day off to collaborate and discuss ideas and topics relating to our students and careers. That alone was inspiring and refreshing.

Once the schedule filled up, there were so many possibilities about where the day would lead. Because of other plans, I was able to catch half of the first session, half of the third and all of the fourth. My goal for the day was to get as much out of each session that I was able to catch.

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?"