I (Think I Might) Love You, Internet (Even If I Don't Always Like You)

In the past, I've sometimes contemplated how I would explain the concept of the Internet to a person living 100 years ago if I somehow found myself sitting in the past after stumbling into a rip in the space-time continuum. Imagine having to explain the concept of the Internet to people who predate the computer!

"The Internet is a place," I could see myself starting. "I mean, it's not a physical place, but it's not solely in your mind, either. You can physically see it, engage with it, and communicate with almost anybody! Most people in the US have access to portable devices with glowing screens that can connect to the Internet. It's an infinite source of knowledge."

"Indubitably," responds the hypothetical person from the past, who, regardless of time period and region, would definitely use that term, "people in your time must love taking advantage of its infinite knowledge! Everybody must be so intelligent in your time. Oh, it must be divine to come from a most learned civilization of scholars!"

"Yeah...you would think so, but most use the Internet as a source of completely mindless entertainment. Also, much of the 'information' provided by the Internet is unreliable, and people have moved away from reading books. Actually, this guy named Ray Bradbury is going to write a book about this in the 1950s that will predict all of this, so if you want to know more, I'd say read that book and you'll get the idea."

Corona Time in Teachingland

Life in 2020...or is this 2008? Hard to differentiate.

One of my biggest regrets of the past few years has been my complete negligence of maintaining this EduBlog; to be honest, it would have been nice to have more detailed documentation of my teaching life, pre-coronavirus (P.C.?), at my fingertips, for a reminder of my "normal" routine, but I digress. To be honest, I have thought of several ideas for Edublog entries over the years and left those ideas in the drafts, to be written later. Yet here I am, remembering a particular item on the list of study tips that my eighth grade science teacher relayed to us at the beginning of that year: Don't refuse to start a task until the inspiration strikes; it probably never will. You were right, Mrs. M: later never came, and there are seven or eight half-completed (I'm an optimist!) drafts sitting in the queue. But again, I digress.

For right now, I just want to take some time to discuss the changes in the last few weeks: of my routine, of my experience as a teacher, of my state of mind as a human being.

As a side note, please excuse what is likely to be a composition that flows as a stream of consciousness as opposed to a polished piece of writing. Does anybody really want to proof read at 3:00 AM?

#GratitudeSnaps: Giving Thanks All November Long!

I am a little late to hop onto Tara M Martin's #GratitudeSnaps challenge, as I discovered the challenge only a couple of days ago, but I figured that beginning the challenge late is better than never beginning at all!

During this chaotic season of the school year, we teachers are under a lot of stress, as we have been "on" since late August/September with almost no breaks! Thus, it is imperative that we take a moment to step back and reflect on all of the blessings that have been bestowed upon us.

In no particular order, here are my Gratitude Snaps (excuse the fact that it's more of a list than a series of pictures.)

Routine Vocab. Sentences: A Creative Writing Task AND Interactive Experience

A detailed student drawing from what started off as an assignment to merely write 20 vocabulary sentences.

In my 6th, 7th, and 8th grade literature classes, I routinely assign vocabulary words to my students. Vocab. is on a two-week cycle in my class: at the beginning of Week 1, we go over the 20 new words for the cycle. Then, students have until the end of Week 1 to submit 20 carefully-written vocabulary sentences (with context clues!), and I give them a vocabulary quiz at the end of Week 2, which includes ten student-written sentences from the week on the back (the vocab. word is replaced with a blank, and, as part of the quiz, students must fill in the blank with the correct vocabulary word.)

Three years ago, when I first began teaching at my current school, I never imagined that my vocab. assignments would explode into the cacophony of creativity that they are today. Vocabulary has even become the favorite assignment of some of my students, and a few students ask me to upload new vocab. lists early so that they may start on their next assignment. How did this happen?

Summer Reading Projects (ft. Jubby Jr.!)

Who is Jubby Jr.? Read more to see.

At my current job (fourth year here, hooray!), I have the benefit of teaching the entire middle school for all three years of their middle school career. One major perk of this setup is the depth of the relationships I build with my students; I watch and foster their growth from sweet sixth graders, excited and bewildered by their new status as middle school students, to confident, inquisitive eighth graders, leading the school (hopefully with a good example!)

As the middle school literature teacher, I give my students ample opportunities to display their creativity through a plethora of projects and writing assignments throughout the year.

The first major assignment I give them upon their return to school in August is the summer reading project. Summer reading is assigned in the last weeks of school in June. I inform each grade level of their required book, and I then tell the rising seventh and eighth graders that I expect them to read two choice novels in addition to their required reading, and the rising sixth graders read one choice novel.

On the first day of school, I give the students a basic comprehension quiz on the required novel to check to see if they completed it. (Yes, I'm that teacher - and I have no remorse!) We then embark on a 2-3 week book unit on the required novel, in which I introduce the novel's historical text and we analyze key scenes and characters and have structured debates and discussions on themes.

Then, of course, there are the choice books. I want the students to be able to creatively engage with their choice reading books because, hey, they chose to read them for a reason!

Running into Students Outside of School: Awkward times for all!

This is an entry I have been wanting to write for a while, but I had to wait until I had a little more teaching experience - and a greater collection of tales to tell! - to provide readers with the high-quality awkward stories that an entry like this deserves. A huge shout out goes to the 2014/2015 school year for providing me with two of the five tales in this entry. This entry is dedicated to you, man!

Question of the hour:

Is it ideal for one to live in the community in which one teaches? 

This has been a long-debated issue for educators everywhere. On one hand, living and teaching in the local community saves gas money for the commutes to and from work. Living in the area also enables educators to sleep in a little bit relative to those who must commute from further distances and shows that the educator has so much faith in the local school system that he/she chooses that system for the education of his/her children.

Living in close proximity to students comes with a price, though. A teacher runs the risk of running into students everywhere outside of work, whether that teacher is jogging in the park, dining at a restaurant, or buying food at the store. It doesn't sound that bad, right? How about if that teacher is jogging in the park shirtless or wearing short shorts? What if that person is at a restaurant with his/her embarrassing/outspoken relatives and/or drinking alcohol? What if that person is buying sanitary products at the store? Are these really times in which that person wants to turn around and hear, "Hey, Mr./Ms. So-and-so! What's up?"

There have really only been a handful of times in which I have run into students outside of school, as I have never taught in the community in which I lived. I prefer to withhold a lot of information about my life outside of school from my students in order to avoid breaking the professional barrier between teacher and students. Therefore, it is my personal choice to stay out of the local community and live elsewhere. That makes the few times I have run into students outside of school rather unexpected, especially given the settings in which I ran into these students. But alas, enough talk: you probably are more interested in hearing specific stories.

Here they are: the times I have run into students outside of school, in order from my least awkward to my most awkward experience.

#5: At J.C. Penney

I was walking around J.C. Penney one evening with my mom. We were looking at coats. One of my students from the learning center was there with her friend, and she said hello. That's basically all there is to that story. Not that amusing, but a little unexpected nonetheless.

Moving on...

#4: At an ice cream store

It was May of the year in which I did my student teaching. I had moved home from Ann Arbor and was living with my parents, just one city north of my student teaching placement. It had been a rather stressful work day, and my mom took me out for an ice cream cone after dinner. After we had gotten out of the car and were approaching the ice cream shop, I saw a teenage girl staring at me, and I realized it was one of my students. We waved hello, and then I awkwardly stood in line with my mom, unsure of whether I should have a conversation with my mom about "real life" topics with a student within ear shot.

#3: While carrying a plate of cookies in the streets of Ann Arbor

This story is my favorite. Now, I am aware that most people find me a little odd, whether you are my student or one of the people who knows me as "Stephanie." I'm sure the following experience reinforced this belief for one of my students.

U of M, finals week, April 2012. It was my first year after I completed my master's degree, and I was back in Ann Arbor visiting a friend of mine who was a U of M senior. She wanted to take a study break, so she invited me to her apartment to help her bake cookies. Our idea was that we would walk around campus, find our friends who were studying for finals, and surprise our friends with free cookies. We baked a couple dozen cookies and set foot on an adventure to brighten the lives of stressed students with these delicious, golden edibles!

We walked around campus and passed out cookies to our friends. We passed out cookies to homeless people. We even got hungry and passed out cookies to ourselves! (Sorry I'm not sorry!) As we walked down State Street on the final stretch of our cookie delivery journey, I heard a voice calling my name - but not my first name, my teacher name! I raised my eyebrow and looked around. Who on earth would be on U of M's campus? At that point in time, all of my former students were in high school or younger!

It turns out that one of my students that I had taught the previous year was at U of M for a one-day high school program. She was in the car with her dad and baby brother, and they were parallel parked on State Street. I gave all three of them cookies and explained that passing out cookies to random people was my weekend job. We all had a good laugh.

The best part is that I am pretty sure she believed me, and I'm sure she had great stories to tell her classmates at school that Monday. In fact, she probably still believes that every weekend, I walk around Ann Arbor passing out cookies to strangers. Best. Rumor. EVER!

#2: At Comicon

This story could have EASILY been #1, had I decided to dress up in a costume this year. I have been to the local Comicon a total of twice in my life: in 2013 and 2015. When I went in 2013, I was with a group of friends that included my sister, my sister's college roommate, and two of my best female friends from high school. We all decided to have the full Comicon "experience" by dressing up in costumes - because hey, why not go all out? This time, however, I was returning to Comicon as a full-time teacher. I did not believe it was likely that I would see any of my students at Comicon, since the event took place about forty-five minutes away from the community in which I worked, but I wanted to play it safe and not dress up in a costume just in case...

Well, I guess a couple of my students made the commute with their families because I did see one of my students there, and a different student told me the following Monday that he was there as well. I was counting my lucky stars that the time I ran into students at Comicon was NOT the time I was dressed up in costume! I have no problem with my students knowing that I go to Comicon, but with their easy access to Smart Phones and the Internet, I'm going to have to make it a habit of going sans costume from now on.

Finally...

#1: At the water park

This story could have been much, much more awkward and embarrassing than it was, but I'm just going to throw this out there: it is the fear of every teacher to randomly run into students at water parks and lakes, places where people normally wear bathing suits. That's just awkward soup in a bowl for everybody involved!

On the 4th of July this year, my friends and I decided to go to a water park. We spent several hours of that afternoon going on water slides, lazy rivers, and wave pools - naturally, all as we were wearing our bathing suits. As I was waiting outside of the changing room for my friends to finish changing back to pedestrian clothes after our time at the park was over, I saw one of my students from this past school year walk by with a group of friends. I had my sunglasses on and my hair up, so the student did not recognize me, and I decided it would be very awkward to approach the student and say hello, so I continued sitting and waiting for my friends. I was just thankful that this did not happen earlier in the day when my friends and I were running around the park in our bathing suits.

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There you have it: awkward tales of random student sightings outside of work. At some point in the next few years, perhaps I will revisit this entry and compose an update with more recent stories, especially because - dun dun DUUUUUN! - I received a new, out-of-state job for the 2015/2016 school year, and I am going to be living in the local community for this job. Hurray, potential for new awkward experiences...?

What do you think, teacher friends: Do you prefer living in the community in which you teach, or do you prefer to distance yourselves from work? Have you ever run into students outside of work? Where was it? What happened?

Here We Go Again...

The 2014/2015 school year is officially over, and I once again find myself without a job for the fall. Yes, this is apparently becoming a yearly ritual for me. Last year, the school at which I was employed shut down; this year, the two campuses of the school at which I was employed consolidated, fewer teachers were needed, and I was the last one hired - and therefore, the first to go. Fortunately, I anticipated this situation, and I began applying for new jobs for next school year about a month ago.

So far, I have had a handful of interviews. Now that I have four years of experience (1.5 of which were full time) under my belt, I am receiving more calls for interviews than ever before. No job offers yet, but I have made two second-round interviews as of today, which is much better luck than I had applying for jobs last year at this time. I know that most schools do their hiring around August, so I will just be patient, enjoy my summer, and keep applying. My co-workers at the job I am leaving have been nothing but supportive, and the principal, dean, and math teacher have offered to write me glowing letters of recommendation. For this, I am truly thankful.

Right now, I am feeling conflicted. On one hand, I am optimistic about finding work for the fall (and maybe I should be much more worried, since I will have neither a salary nor insurance after early August if I am not employed.) Maybe that work will be in a different area of Michigan or in another state. Maybe it will be the start of a new chapter of my life; I think I'm due for a new, positive chapter after the stresses of the last couple of years. All I know is that I care about kids and teens, enjoy educating them, and want to continue doing that in the years to come.

On the other hand, though, this field is so unstable. I'm in my mid-20s now, and I need to be saving up for retirement. I am not married, I do not have children, and now would be the perfect time to go back to school so I can earn a degree in a field in which I can make a more substantial amount of money. So many of my classmates from my teacher education master's program have already left the field because of the working conditions, and in many ways, I don't blame them. We can all say that we do this for the kids, which most of us do (we ALL should!), but there comes a point when a lot of us realize that the stresses of the profession are too much. As much as it pains me to say this, there comes a point when we have to think of ourselves. The worst part is that under these conditions, students are losing quality teachers because many quality teachers do not want to stay in such an unstable profession, which ultimately sets amazing, capable young students up for failure. Such a tragedy for all parties involved...

...But alas, I am trying not to think about this harsh reality. For now, that is. I need a break now more than ever before. This summer, I plan to relax and explore my own hobbies, talents, and strengths. It has truly been a while since I have taken the time to relax and be me - and maybe figure out who, exactly, that person is. I will continue to apply for full-time jobs in teaching and to see where that leads, but I am also applying for full-time jobs in other fields for the sake of exploring other opportunities to use my gifts and talents for the benefit of the greater good of humanity. (Too optimistic?)

Bring it on, life, you unpredictable little beast!