Using Social Networking Tools in K-College Instruction: Pros and Cons

Article Summary

Wade's (n.d.) article explores the impacts of social networking on K-college students both in and outside of school. Social networking sites empower students to engage in productive activities, such as finding an internship, sharing success stories/strategies to overcoming obstacles relevant to their peers (e.g.: repaying student loans), and collaborating with others around the world. Social networking sites also allow administrators to strengthen their school community. Through running social media pages for the school, parents, teachers, administrators, and students stay connected to current events relevant to the school community. Additionally, these sites give administrators chances to provide more options for parents to participate in school events. Allowing parents the option to attend meetings virtually enables a wider variety of parents to participate, including those who have obligations that would not allow them to attend meetings in person.  

Despite some hesitation about the distractibility of students when they use social networking sites during the school day, social networking sites can be advantageous to students as a collaboration and organizational tool. Learning management systems (LMS), like Moodle and Blackboard, have been prevalent in classrooms for more than ten years. Wade (n.d.) argued that the utilization of such LMSs will eventually transition into a wider use of social networking sites in classrooms. Students generally have a positive reaction towards a teacher's decision to use social networking sites in their instruction, as the sites allow students more options to share their thoughts about academic topics using platforms with which they are most comfortable. This article quotes Professor Carla Dawson from the Catholic University of Cordoba, who states that the technological trends of today become the "standard" form of communication tomorrow and stresses that schools need to adapt these modern forms of communication into their instruction in order to make instruction most relevant to the students.

a) Why do you consider this to be an example of ways in which new media and technologies can positively contribute to society?

The information in this article rings true to my observations regarding the use of social networking tools, particularly in social networking tools' ability to strengthen parent/teacher/administrator relationships. My current principal is a strong proponent for the use of new media to promote the school, and, under her leadership, our school began and maintains active Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook accounts. My principal encourages teachers to submit pictures of classroom activities in order to promote our school and give parents and potential families a glimpse into all that we have to offer. Current parents, alumni, older current students, our Diocesan school board, and other Diocesan schools interact with posts the most frequently, which helps to promote the school to the general public. The social media accounts also greatly help in communicating urgent messages, like sudden school cancelations or reminders about PTO meetings or dress-down days.

The middle school teachers at my school have used two different LMSs in my seven-year run: During my first year, the 1:1 iPad initiative in the middle school was new, and we used Showbie as an online dropbox for students to submit work and teachers to quickly grade that work. Showbie also offered students and teachers the ability to exchange messages about assignments, as students could leave a comment in a work folder, and teachers could respond outside of school hours, which helped absent or confused students. After the pandemic hit, our Diocese switched over to Schoology, which is an LMS that offered many more options, including the ability to conduct video conferences, create discussion boards and polls, and conduct assessments online. Both of these LMSs provide(d) students with a tool in which they could stay organized with their work and upcoming tests and quizzes, ask questions to teachers, and engage in educational discussions with one another. These LMSs have many of the same characteristics as social networking sites that students use daily, except the LMSs are regulated by teachers, so students only use them as an academic tool. This allows students to learn how to effectively communicate via a digital tool so that they may some day take some of the communication and digital citizenship skills they have learned while using features of the LMS and apply them to the social networking tools that they use in their everyday lives.

b) What challenges are encountered in such contexts?

Middle schoolers are not always on task when they have a device. Even with our firewalls in place, students have the skills necessary to access blocked content. Many students are extremely tech savvy and know how to circumvent the security settings, allowing them unrestricted access to the Internet. Some students show signs of having an addiction to the iPad, as they constantly use a device at home and cannot seem to peel themselves away from the device even after a teacher instructs them to shut the iPad multiple times. We, as teachers, have to be proactive about setting boundaries within our classrooms regarding when a student can use their device and strategizing about how we can best monitor their activity/iPad usage while they are in our classroom while still delivering our instruction.

The one challenge I have observed with our use of social media is the fact that social media coverage of the school can be political in nature, as some parents deem that certain students are always making an appearance in pictures on our social media sites, while their kid rarely does. The fact of the matter is that some teachers habitually take many pictures and others deem frequent picture taking to be a waste of time or an interruption to their instruction, so the teachers who run our social media accounts do their best to make sure that the accounts have representation of all grade levels and a variety of the activities that we run.

Overall, the benefits of using social networking in K-12 or K-college settings outweigh the challenges, and I look forward to seeing how schools will continue to use social networking tools in the future.

Reference

Wade, L. (n.d.). How social media is reshaping today's education system. Center for Social Impact Communication. Retrieved February 12, 2022, from https://csic.georgetown.edu/magazine/social-media-reshaping-todays-education-system/ 

"Who am I?" - uh, again: The Internet and Professionalism Remix

"I love that my middle school yearbooks now appear as search results when people Google my name," said no sane person, ever.

During my second year at my current job, I was explaining the concept of professionalism to my eighth grade students. I emphasized that one of the primary lessons the school teaches students is how to compartmentalize their personal and more "professional" personas, which is why there are certain rules and expectations regarding language, dress codes, and mannerisms that students are expected to follow at school but not necessarily at home. I went on to state that, I, as a teacher, have to act professional in my classroom in front of my students, otherwise I might be in danger of losing my job. Of course, as I was pointing this out, one of my eighth graders questioned the professionalism part when she pointed out that some of my classroom decorations included a row of clementines on which students had drawn faces, a twig in a metallic pail, drawings of a hybrid cabbage-unicorn creature called a cabbicorn, and a canvas with a winking cow drawn in the center - and I kept a pair of bear paw slippers under my desk. Perhaps she had a point; however, I will argue that there is a distinction between silliness and professionalism: It's possible to be silly while still being professional. 

It is very easy for me to cultivate my "professional" identity at work: I have direct control my work ethic, choice of clothes and language, and my daily actions in front of my students. However, regardless of how I feel about it, my identity as a teacher is also cultivated in cyberspace - a place in which I do not always have control: Although I share my first and last name with hundreds of people in the US, the correct combination of search terms for my name will bring up a number of results over which I have no control: my page on ratemyteachers.com (the website recently took down all of the old ratings and comments, but for quite a while, anonymous ratings from former students were out in the public eye), my middle school yearbooks (courtesy of my hometown's historical society), records of my address and former addresses as well as the names of all of my relatives. I am not overly excited that any of these items exist publicly online for anybody, including my students, to access them, but, like many others (Solove, 2011), I have come to accept the fact that one cannot expect privacy in this digital age.

Lowenthal et al. (2016) emphasized the importance of professionals maintaining a personally-controlled website, as such a website "...gives professionals that is under their control to ensure consistency and reliability over time; the professionals determine how they are presented professionally online, and when work and ideas are publicly shared" (p. 323). Last semester in our Instructional Design class, my cohort members and I were required to create an online portfolio for our assignments. I opted to create a professional website that showcased my work for the class as well as my teaching philosophy, educational history, and photos of me "in action" in my classroom and extra-curricular activities. This website is public and is therefore accessible to anybody who might want to learn more about me. According to Lowethal et al. (2016), I should update my professional website at least once every six months to keep the information on the site current for any professional who may come across my site. 

To further build my professional identity, I should invest more time in maintaining an active Twitter account. My Twitter account was created for a class during my master's program, and in the ten years since that program ended, I have followed hundreds of educational professionals - most of whom are complete strangers with whom I have connected via EdChats. With this very large professional learning network, I have ample opportunities to take advantage of the knowledge base and professional expertise of this group, but I am just not logging in. If I spend more time tweeting - even if I just logged in once or twice per week - and overall maintaining a more active account, I could further build my professional identity and strengthen my connections within my PLN.

I currently believe that my professional identity is primarily cultivated through my reputation in my immediate community. I have been at my current place of employment (a small, PK-8 Catholic school) for over seven years and, in that time, have build connections with my colleagues, students, and families. They know how I run my classes, they know how hard I will work for their student and their family, and they put a lot of trust in me. I am also an active parishioner at the church affiliated with the school, and I am recognized by parishoners for my involvement in the music ministry and young adult group. There really is not much of my professional identity that is made online, as I rarely tweet or network with anybody. I had a few very positive reviews on ratemyteachers.com before the website removed all of the old reviews, which would have positively impacted my professional identity for anybody who wanted to do a background check on me. 

Like many other professionals in academia (Hinton, n.d.), my biggest challenge to my digital ecology for my identity as a teacher lies in my use of Facebook, specifically in keeping my public and private life in balance on social media. The community in which I teach is very close, and it is not uncommon for several parents, who have become close friends of mine, to become Facebook friends with the teachers, as we are all one large church and school community. I almost always accept friend requests from the parents, as most other teachers at my school do, which is very unique to my community; however, this does impact the content that I will choose to post on my Facebook page. I rarely post anything that is political in nature, as I do not want to alienate any part of my community. I do have filters for my posts, and I have all the parents/former students in one group that is sometimes filtered from my posts if I believe certain posts of mine will be considered too political, but, for the most part, the fact that parents and former students are my Facebook friends has not really impacted my posting habits, as a) I do not post very much, and b) when I do post, many times I share posts from my school's social media page, as most of my life centers around my job. 

As for my identity as a doctoral student, I do not really think I have much of an identity just yet. Obviously, I have not published any research as of yet, and my identity as a doctoral student is completely separated from my identity as a teacher, save for a few instances in which I had an assignment that impacted something I did or made at work. In some ways, I feel like I would have more of an identity as a doctoral student if I lived on campus - or had ever even been to the UF campus before - but, since I am completing my coursework through a hybrid program and COVID prevented all of my cohort's in-person sessions so far from happening, thus meaning that, two years into the program, I have never met my cohort members or professors in person before, I just do not feel that my identity as a doctoral student exists, outside of a reference to my degree on my LinkedIn profile or on my teacher profile posted to my school's website. I look forward to progressing in my program and, perhaps, building this part of my identity. Perhaps I will be able to integrate a little bit of silliness into this identity, as I do in my identity as a teacher.

References

Hinton, A. (n.d.). YouTube / "Context collapse" the. SlideShare. Retrieved February 5, 2022, from https://www.slideshare.net/andrewhinton/beyond-findability-context/44-YouTube_Context_Collapse_The_problem

Lowenthal, P. R., Dunlap, J. C., & Stilton, P. (2016). Creating an intentional web presence: Strategies for every educational technology professional. TechTrends, 60(4), 320-329. https://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1141&context=edtech_facpubs  

Solove, D. J. (2011). Why privacy matters even if you have 'nothing to hide', Chronicle of Higher Education.

"Who am I?": Identity in the Age of Social Media

When I was in seventh grade, I remember sitting at my desk in my English class with my textbook opened to the introductory page of our newest short story unit. The theme: Who am I? As a seventh grader, I pondered why that question served as the foundation for an entire literature unit. Isn't a person's identity simply linked to their physical characteristics, parentage/family history, job, and choice of friends? As I soon learned, the concept of one's identity is anything but simple, and even as an adult, after knowing myself for over thirty years, I still cannot formulate a succinct answer to this question.

Who am I? We spend our lifetime pondering this question, and the answer to this question evolves as our life progresses to each successive chapter. Are we truly the sum of all our parts, or are we the attributes of ourselves that we pick and choose for others to see? 

I have always been very intrigued about the idea of each person living in their own, unique version of reality; our perceptions of ourselves as well as of other people are all unique and based on our individual life experiences/interactions. In my reality, I see my "whole", unfiltered self: the good, bad, and ugly. Of course, like a vast majority of people, I try to minimize the amount of exposure of my "bad" or "ugly" sides to other people, but, inevitably, they emerge from time to time. In general, family and close friends tend to be more forgiving and understanding when one's "bad" or "ugly" side emerges, as family and close friends have had more time to get to know and enjoy one's "good" side; this is less so the case with strangers and acquaintances, who, with one bad experience and nothing else upon which to base a judgement of a person's character or identity, will form a negative opinion about a person when they see that person's "bad" or "ugly" side.

The beauty of human relationships lies in the fact that they are malleable: a simple action or experience with another person can drastically change one's opinion of that person and that person's identity in the eye of one, or several, people. A simple kind gesture can be the springboard of a friendship. A compliment can be the first step towards a romantic relationship. A consensual hug or handshake can lay the first bricks for the foundation of a community. Terse words can cause life-long rifts among family, friends, or romantic partners. Fumbling one's words in a speech can mar a person's identity in the eyes of the public. Throughout most of human history, once an action has taken place, it becomes a piece of the past, unable to be altered, and never to be replayed. A person could be forgiven for a cruel action over time, and the action itself would remain in the past...

...and then came the dawn of Smartphones and social media.

According to an article by Flores (2018), social media gives a lot more permanence to a person's careless or hurtful words and actions, as, if there is evidence of those words or actions posted to social media, even deleting the evidence will not permanently remove it, as other people have the ability to take screenshots, save media to their device, and reupload these screenshots and media to other places on the Internet. Imagine having one of your worst moments recorded and uploaded to the Internet for a world-wide audience to see! Even years after the incident had passed, new audiences would watch the moment and make judgements about you and your character. This mistake would become a permanent part of your identity.

As an example of how one bad decision on social media can have a permanent impact on a person's reputation, Flores' (2018) article cites Roseanne Barr's 2018 Tweets that ultimately cost Roseanne her place on the reboot of her TV show and her reputation among many contacts in Hollywood and members of the general public. Although several years have passed since this incident took place, nobody is able to search for Roseanne's name in a public database without finding articles about this incident or images of the original Tweets. This Tweet now becomes part of Roseanne's digital footprint, and ultimately her online identity, that will follow her for life. 

Although social media can benefit our relationships with others by providing an online space in which people can establish and maintain connections with others that are "...similar to [the connections] obtained in offline relationships" (Grieve et. al, 2013, p. 608), it is important to remember that everything we post or write online - even if we are writing something in a "private" chat to somebody else or posting a picture to a supposedly-private account - permanently becomes part of our identity. It's also important to stress the importance of the digital footprint to the younger generation, living out their adolescent and college years via social media - and not always making the wisest choices about what to post. 

So who are we? Just as before, we appear to be the sum of our parts. In the offline world, we are still as complex and multifaceted as ever. However, in the age of Smartphones and social media, unfortunately, every digital "mistake" can be saved and thus permanently becomes part of our identity, which further emphasizes the need to think before you post and to the teach the younger generations to do the same.

References

Flores, T. (2018). How your social media defines you more than you think. Unwritten. Retrieved January 17, 2022, from https://www.readunwritten.com/2018/06/07/how-social-media-defines-you/

Grieve, R., Indian, M., Witteveen, K., Tolan, G. A., & Marrington, J. (2013). Face-to-face or Facebook: Can social connectedness be derived online? Computers in Human Behavior, 29(3), 604-609.

The Pandemic and Me: Changes in my Media Ecology

Hello, everybody! 

I am reviving my Edublog for my Instructional Computing course, so, if you are somehow still here from my blog's initial launch in 2010, prepare for weekly updates! 

In many ways, my experience of living through the COVID-19 lockdown starting in March 2020 was not unlike the experiences of most others: I had to quickly adapt to doing my job remotely, and my in-person social life abruptly ended for what seemed like an eternity. I would argue that I was definitely more socially isolated than most people: While most individuals live in a house with their family, I, a woman in my early 30s, lived in a townhouse with one roommate who rarely left her room and another roommate who spent her time during lockdown living with one of her relatives. Thus, I spent approximately the first two months of the lockdown entirely alone, with the absence of any in-person human interaction. 

There are a few facets of my life that are particularly unusual: Most people, by their 30s, if they have a significant other, reside with that person. My boyfriend and I have been dating for over eleven years, and, aside from our first seven months of dating, we have been a long-distance couple. In our time together, he has lived in three different states, and I have lived in two. There was a two-year period in which we were "only" a 2.5-hour driving distance apart, but even still, we were unable to see one another more than maybe twice a month. My parents and most of my close childhood friends live in my home state, from which I moved 500 miles away in 2015 in order to take my current job. Thus, going into the pandemic, I was already very used to using electronic platforms and innovations to maintain my closest relationships. The only difference was that now, not only did I have to use electronic innovations to maintain those relationships, but now, I had to maintain a long-distance relationship with every single person in my life - from my students to my co-workers and other casual acquaintances. Although our physical distances were, at most, just a few miles apart, these were functionally long-distance relationships in that I had no way of actually seeing these people in person and had to communicate with them using the same electronic innovations that I had previously reserved for my boyfriend and parents.

Since getting together with others in person was no longer an option, I, like many people stuck at home, went to social media as a means of connecting with people in the outside world. I had begun to notice that the very nature of social media posts began to shift as the months of the lockdown progressed. No more were people posting pictures of their extravagant vacations or status updates about some award won by their child; nobody's life was made to look grandiose or "perfect", as was often the case before the lockdown. The content of what I saw on social media during this time is very consistent with types of content witnessed by a variety of people interviewed in Rani Molla's (2021) recent article on Vox: [In social media postings during the early days of the COVID-lockdown], "...houses were a mess, children were home and misbehaved, people didn't wear makeup." No longer did any of us strive to depict our lives as "perfect," for we all shared a reality in which nothing was perfect. In fact, according to Molla's (2021) article, social media platforms that exposed the less "perfect" sides of our lives were the platforms that had the most growth during the pandemic (e.g.: TikTok). It makes sense, though: We were afraid of the future. Nobody knew how long we would have to stay inside; nobody knew whether this virus would wipe out our entire species, as a vaccine had not been developed; there was just so much uncertainty that we used social media as a platform to bond over our fears and the imperfections of our lives. We knew nobody was living their "best lives" (I am so sick of that phrase...), and any attempt to pretend that we were was met with scrutiny and disbelief.

I recently looked back at my own Facebook posts around that time. While I did not post frequently, I did use Facebook as a means of posting humorous content during the pandemic from time to time. As a middle school teacher at a school with a 1:1 iPad program, we had a pretty smooth transition to our eLearning model. My school actually had our eLearning up and running less than a week after school was called off. The first several weeks of our eLearning model was asynchronous: The teachers would unlock a new folder on Showbie (our learning management system at the time) daily that contained the students' work for the day. I made daily instructional videos for each grade level (sixth, seventh, and eighth), in which I tried to keep the spirit of my class alive through somewhat interactive games (I would hide a "Secret Word of the Day" within a piece of content that I made for class that day and would challenge the kids to find the "Secret Word of the Day" as they were going through their lessons) and activities (I once asked the eighth graders to illustrate what they believed an oven toaster would look like, and then I took the pictures and made them into a slideshow that introduced the next day's video). I would also occasionally dress up in humorous costumes for the videos just to catch everybody off guard (I once dressed up in the student uniform and asked the kids if they missed having to wear it every day. Then, for some reason I think was related to some kind of Virtual Spirit Week, I also dressed up in an elephant onesie and wore a pink cowboy hat.) Because my antics lifted my own spirits and the spirits of the students I taught, I would occasionally post about them on Facebook just to give my friends and personal community at large something to laugh about in those uncertain times. 

Molla's (2021) article states that during the pandemic, a lot of people "...abstained from posting [on social media] to not give the impression they were doing something they shouldn't be." This definitely described me, especially once the school year ended. In early June 2020, my thought process was that I was going to stay in my house all summer and just wait for the new school year to begin. I knew that the fall would bring many changes, include the start of my Ed.D. program, and I needed that summer to simply relax - a concept that is now very foreign to me. I was content with staying at home and reading books all day...until my boyfriend suggested that I spend a large portion of the summer with him.

Let me tell you: The pandemic was a blessing for long-distance couples (Although I don't know many long-distance couples, this was definitely the consensus among those I know!) My summer obligations had all been canceled. I had all the free time in the world. Why not go and actually spend time with my boyfriend, to see what it was like to be an actual "normal" couple that lives in the same state? He had just moved to yet another new state, into a townhouse that was larger than any of his previous dwellings, so there was now plenty of room for me and a month's worth of my belongings. I put on the biggest, most protective mask I could find, got on a train, and I was gone until August. I knew that I would face a lot of judgment from family members and friends for my decision to travel during that time - and my subsequent decisions to travel to his place again for Thanksgiving and Christmas later that year, since my parents did not think it was safe for me to travel home. This meant that, during my visits to see my boyfriend, I took a lot of pictures that I kept to myself (it was very hard to do at times; he lives in a place that is very scenic, and I was able to take some beautiful pictures of wildlife and landscapes that I would have loved to have shared with others on Facebook). Eventually, I did post some of those pictures, but I waited until the mid-2021 to do so, after the vaccine had come out, and I was very vague about when the pictures were taken. Like the people in Molla's (2021) article, I prefaced each post with a note about how I had followed "COVID-safe" protocols when I had travelled to avoid what I perceived as potential judgement from others.

In general, since the pandemic began, I have found that I am posting much less content about my life on social media. Quite frankly, it's nobody else's business what I am or am not doing, and I am noticing a downward trend in posts about the personal lives of others, unless it is an announcement of a major life event, like an engagement or the birth of a child. Now that we have more freedom to be out and about, most of us seem to be experiencing a bit of a social media "exhaustion" after using it as one of our primary sources of communication when we had to stay in our homes for such a long time. 

Although social media was derived as a way for people to keep in touch with one another, in the last several years, it has become a platform of bickering and the spread of misinformation. The pandemic itself has caused political divides and rifts within families and friend groups and social media has become a platform in which this bickering continues. As stated by Baym and boyd (2012), "...offline contexts permeate online activities, and online activities bleed endlessly back to reshape what happens online" (p. 327), so it does make sense that our offline interactions with others find a way to trickle into our online interactions with those people, and vice-versa. 

So where does this leave my media ecology in the present moment? Aside from posting on social media much less frequently than I had before the pandemic, I have resorted to using other platforms for staying in touch with my loved ones. I have utilized Zoom and Google Hangouts to frequently catch up with some of my friends from high school. In fact, I have been in touch with them more frequently in last couple of years than I have throughout most of our adult lives. I have also used Zoom and Google Hangouts to play Jackbox games (would highly recommend!) with my immediate family members, and we have created some shared memories and very strange inside jokes in the last couple of years because of these highly-entertaining games. We are using these digital tools to engage in genre of new media participation of "hanging out", as described by Ito et. al (2009), for we are unable to get together physically, but we spend time being together online (and occasionally, somebody will be multitasking, just like with today's youth!)

Unfortunately, the pandemic seems far from over. From the perspective of a person who is greatly interested in educational technology and society's shifts towards and away from social media, I am curious to see how our society's usage of social media sites and collective media ecology will continue to evolve over time.

References

Baym, N. K. & boyd, d. (2012). Socially mediated publicness: An introduction. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 56(3), 320-329. 

Ito, M., Sonja, B., Matteo, B., boyd, d., Cody, R., Herr, B., Horst, H. A., Lange, P.G., Mahendran, D., Martinez, K., Pascoe, C. J., Perkel, D., Robinson, L., Sims, C., & Tripp, L. (2009). Hanging out, messing around, geeking out: Living and learning with new media. Cambridge: MIT Press.

Molla, R. (2021, March 1). Posting less, posting more, and tired of it all: How the pandemic has changed social media. Vox. Retrieved January 16, 2022, from https://www.vox.com/recode/22295131/social-media-use-pandemic-covid-19-instagram-tiktok

A New Beginning: My Ed.D.

 

I had to make a visual representation of where I am currently in my career, so, uh, ta da!

I composed the following post for one of my class assignments and decided to re-post it on my lovely EduBlog. Enjoy!

I am very excited to begin this new journey in my educational and professional career. I am most excited to see myself as a student once again, as it has been ten years since I completed my master’s program, and, in that time frame, I have occasionally wondered whether I would approach school differently if I were to be in school at this stage of my life or if I would have a greater appreciation for being a student than I did years ago, when being a student was all I knew, as I had not yet begun my career. With as excited as I am to begin this new chapter, I know that I will face a variety of challenges in the years ahead.

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!

My Reaction to #IWishMyTeacherKnew

I grew up in an upper-middle-class suburb where the average household income was around $80,000 per year. The general rule for my hometown was that if your family could afford to live there, either one or both of your parents were a doctor, lawyer, or engineer. I attended the local public high school. 99% of our 500-student graduating class completed high school, and over 90% of the class went to college. There were 23 National Merit Scholars in my graduating class alone. The average composite ACT score was a 24, but most of the students in AP classes scored in the 30s; in fact, one of my best friends scored a perfect 36.

In high school, my main priority was to earn high grades. My parents constantly stressed the importance of education. They were not happy when I received grades lower than an "A". All of my friends' parents felt the same way, and therefore, my friends faced similar academic pressures. A vast majority of the parents in the community wanted to play an active role in their child's education, and therefore, parent-teacher conferences were always packed with parents wanting to discuss their child's progress with the teachers. I grew up thinking that this level of parental involvement and concern about academics was normal.

In addition to this, I never faced problems at home. I always felt safe at home. Both of my parents had stable careers. My family was never in debt. Neither of my parents ever used drugs or consumed alcohol. My sister and I got along well. My parents supported my hobbies and liked my friends. Until I was 21, all four of my grandparents were still alive and lived about twenty minutes away, so they also played an active role in my childhood. 

My biggest fears were not getting first chair in band and not getting into my dream college. Surely, this was all part of the "normal" childhood experience, right? All kids faced the same struggles and had the same opportunities I did, right?

A majority of people, particularly children and teenagers who don't have as much life experience, are conditioned to believe that the circumstances in which they grow up are the norm, and that all kids and teenagers face the same struggles and have the same luxuries they do. I was no exception to this state of mind.

Imagine my culture shock, then, when I started teaching at schools in "high needs" areas. For the last two school years, I have taught at two charter schools. The first charter school (grades K-8) was near a large city, where 99% of our students qualified for free or reduced lunch. When that school closed at the end of last school year, I had to find a new job. My current job is at a charter high school (grades 9-12) near a different large city, where about 70% of our students qualify for free or reduced lunch.

When I saw the anonymous notes from students posted under the hashtag "#IWishMyTeacherKnew", several of my students from both this and last school year immediately came to mind. These notes are genuine cries for help from children living in poverty, children who feel like they neither have a voice nor the power to change their lives for the better. For many of these children, school is the best part of the day; it provides them with the structure and even - dare I say it? - the love that they don't necessarily get at home. For some of them, the only meals they eat are the free breakfasts and lunches served at school.

When a student places his/her head down on the desk or seems genuinely disengaged with a lesson, a young teacher's first instinct is to assume that the student is simply bored and just does not feel like paying attention - after all, that was mostly why students put their heads down at my school growing up. In the setting of a "high needs" school, however, a student's disengagement could have to do with a number of other factors that could indicate a much larger problem than mere boredom.

Although I never had the brilliant idea of asking my students to complete the sentence "I wish my teacher knew...", I would like to share a few of the rough student life situations that have come to my attention over the last two school years:

• Homelessness (several students)
• Abandonment by one or both parents
• Abuse from a parent or sibling (the proper CPS paperwork was filed)
• Death of a parent or sibling
• Parent facing severe depression/alcoholism. Student acts as "head of the household"
• Parent deported to Mexico (several students)
• One or both parents in jail (I have found some of the mugshots online, sadly)
• No food at home
• Too many kids in the house. Does not receive enough attention from mom and/or dad.
• Parent diagnosed with cancer or other terminal disease
• House fire destroyed everything
• Travels from house to house, family member to family member, because nobody seems to want to raise him/her
• Student will be kicked out of the house if he/she does not finish high school by age 18
• Student works after school. Student is sole provider of income in the family

...and these are just some of the tough life situations students faced while they were students in my class. Who is to say what some of these students and their families endured beforehand? What have some of my former middle school students from last year endured since I last saw them? These thoughts can be very unsettling, but they are thoughts that circulate through my mind every day.

I greatly admire Kyle Schwartz for bringing her students' "I wish my teacher knew..." responses to national attention. Not only does bringing these struggles to national attention encourage the general public to stop and think about the unspoken hardships of many students living in poverty, but it also reinforces a general life lesson: 

"Always be kind, for everyone is fighting a hard battle." -Plato

I try to be lenient for certain students when it comes to homework deadlines. I work out individual plans with some students so that they could work around their life circumstances to find a way to be a successful learner in my class. I try to show my students that I care about them by getting to know them.

Prior to becoming a teacher, I lived solely in my middle-class bubble. Like others who have fully lived life in either the middle or upper class, I was aware that poverty existed and that there were thousands of men, women, and children in the U.S. alone who faced it. Now that I am teaching, however, I associate specific names and faces with these rather unfortunate circumstances. These are young people and their families about whom I really care. They're all good people. They don't deserve these unfortunate life circumstances; nobody does.

And that's it. That's why I teach, and that's why I specifically enjoy teaching in "high needs" areas. I do it for them. I genuinely want my students to succeed and to get out of these unstable and often sad situations. I want them to be able to provide a loving and safe environment for their future families and to be able to hold jobs that will keep them out of debt. I don't want them to ever have to worry about when they will eat their next meal. I want them to live a life where they feel safe and respected. The thought of their potential future successes wakes me up every week day morning. It's what motivates me to spend a large portion of my time and energy writing meaningful lessons for them. Its what makes me want to take the steps to become the best possible teacher and mentor I can be for them.

I hope everyone who is fortunate enough to be financially stable can find a way to help other people. Volunteer at a soup kitchen. Build a house with Habitat for Humanity. Find other volunteer opportunities in your community or through your religious organization. Meet the names and faces of those who did not grow up as fortunate as you, whose struggles you may never fully understand. Make somebody's life better because you were a part of it. I promise the experience will change your life.

To conclude:

Twits Tweets Twoots Twerps: I Get It Now

I made myself a badge, since I was just that inspired by #badgechatK12.

Well, I suppose the time has come to admit that I was wrong. Pull up a chair, make a cup of your hot beverage of choice (FLAMIN' HOT CHOCOLATE! JUST BURN IT!), and listen to this one, general public, because sincere public apologies over the Internet are a rare treat.

When I took my Education 504 class during my master's program 4.5 years ago, I was introduced to Twitter. In fact, there was a whole class session devoted to teaching my classmates and me to use Twitter. The instructors showed all of us how Twitter could be utilized as a great networking tool, as a quick and useful way to interact with other professionals and exchange educational resources with other teachers from around the world. Later that day, my classmates and I were required to write a reflective blog entry about using Twitter, and I came up with this.

Back then, I professed my annoyance with the fact that the name of everything related to Twitter contained a horrible bird pun. Back in 2010, my only prior experience with Twitter was using it with my sister. We had made accounts that we never intended to seriously use; had made crazy, fictional personas for our accounts; and had made our fictional characters/personas argue back and forth about nothing. Why? Because it was summer, we were 18 and 21 years old, and we had nothing to do one afternoon. Back in 2010, I had a hard time understanding why other people enjoyed Twitter so much and used it professionally, even after using it during class with my instructors.

This past Sunday, everything changed. My entire world (or, at least, the small part of it that consists of my thoughts about Twitter) was turned upside down. I updated my professional Twitter account for the first time in a while, and I then did something monumental: I participated in my very first Twitter live chat! As soon as the chat started and I submitted my first tweet, I knew I was hooked.

The best part about education-related chats is the fact that one can simply jump right into the conversation. Participants are friendly and open-minded, and the conversations are so engaging. I felt very welcomed by the other teacher/administrator participants, and the love and passion that each participant had for his/her career really showed. I enjoyed sharing ideas and interacting with other professionals on #geniushour (Sunday) and #badgechatK12 (Monday). Both chats introduced me to new ideas and really got me thinking about the practices and procedures at my work place. I even had an opportunity to show off my MS Paint talents on #badgechatK12:

So here it is, Twitter, here is my official apology that was four years in the making: I'm sorry.

I'm sorry for thinking you were useless. I'm sorry that it took me this long to understand your value; you're actually rather addictive. I'm sorry that I have been teaching for this long without knowing what a great professional development tool you are. I'm sorry for dismissing you before really giving you a chance. I was 21 years old back then and clearly so naive. I am much older and wiser now! (Don't let my love of cartoons and pretty colors fool you!)

With all that said, though, I'm not entirely sorry for what I said in 2010. I'm not sorry about laughing at Twitter's terrible bird puns. I'm not sorry for cringing when I hear references to the "Hootsuite". It doesn't make sense, though; owls hoot. Owls don't tweet. If you're going to call it a "Hootsuite," then "tweets" should be called "hoots" and the "Hootsuite" should be the place all the "hoots" go to "chillax" together. What would "hoot" "chillaxing" look like? That's an entry for another day!

Twitter, take the apology and run with it; that's probably the best one you're getting from me until I figure out this whole "Hootsuite" ordeal.

In the meantime, follow my professional self on Twitter, since that actually means something now.

Student Motivation: Am I Actually Evil?

How I probably appear to some of my students.

Each student enters the classroom with a strong yearning to absorb new information. Students are not motivated by grades, prizes, or competition, but rather, by their own curiosity to understand the world around them.

...Okay, we ALL know that is a lie. 

Let's face it: A lot of students don't see the value in learning for the sake of learning. Some would rather spend their time taking selfies on their phones (Side note: why on earth are parents giving phones to middle schoolers?!) or playing video games for hours of the day than understanding how to balance a chemical equation or learning why the United States functions as a democracy.

I have found that a lot of middle and high school students think only in terms of the here and now. College is far away, so how I get there is irrelevant right now. Having a job in the future? Psh. I'll have the skills I need for a job when the time comes; it's too far away. If these students don't see the relevance or the value of their education, how does a teacher motivate them?

Over the past few years, I have experimented with student motivational techniques and have found a couple particularly amusing techniques that have worked. While deep down, I don't know how ethical these techniques really were (should I really have to "trick" students into learning?), they produced great results and maximized learning for students who were not necessarily motivated by the desire to learn for the sake of learning.

Young Teacher Challenges: Did I Say Too Much?

I am the only teacher at my school who does not give out my cell phone number to my advisory (otherwise known as "homeroom") students. While the other teachers at my school have assured me that their students only use their phone numbers to text them and tell them that they are not coming to school on a given day, I don't trust that my students wouldn't abuse the power of knowing my phone number, so I don't give it out for any reason.

I have taught at a charter high school since the beginning of the 2014/2015 school year, and while my overall experience in this school environment has been positive and comfortable, I have occasionally had students make awkward comments to me. Students have asked me to go to parties or have asked for permission to call me by my first name. I have to remind them that no, none of that is okay, because I am their teacher and not a fellow student. In talking to my co-workers about these comments, I found that one other young female teacher has dealt with similar awkward/invasive questions from students, and she has also reminded students to respect the student/teacher boundaries.

One of the challenges of my teaching career so far has been maintaining the aura of being an adult authority figure around all of my students for the full duration of the school year. The beginning of the school year is fine, but over time, when my students get to know me, some of them seem to start seeing me as more of an "older sister" figure than that of an adult who is trying to guide them towards achieving academic success. This has happened both last year at the middle school level and, to a greater extent, this year with high school students.

In some ways, I get it: I'm small, soft spoken, and have an overall non-threatening demeanor. It may be difficult for my high school students to view a person who is only 8-11 years their senior as a parental figure, as a person my age is too young to have a child in the high school age range. Add to that the fact that this person looks like she could be one of their peers, and we are left with some confused students.

I often find myself in an odd predicament at work. Although I am an adult authority figure, there are times when I feel I can relate better to the students than to the other adults. All of my co-workers are older than me and are married, whereas I am in my mid-20s and am still at home with my parents and adult younger sister, saving money for my own house. I don't know what it's like to be married or have my own family, but I do know my video games and colorful cartoon shows. Just say the word "Pokemon", and I can talk for a very. long. time.

Sometimes, I feel uncomfortable when students ask me about my interests because I fear that revealing too much to them would cause them to further view me as a peer rather than an adult. I was warned by my mentor teacher last school year that as soon as a teacher lets his/her guard down and allows the students to get too comfortable, that teacher has a much more difficult time with classroom management because the students will no longer see that teacher as an authority figure, but rather, a peer. Peers do a poor job managing a classroom. On the other hand, we, as teachers, are always encouraged to share who we are with our students. Students form a deeper emotional connection to the person they see as more than just the adult in front of the classroom trying to teach them comma rules. Deeper emotional connections with the adults at school can ultimately lead to greater student success.

What are some effective strategies that younger teachers use to further assert themselves as authority figures? Where do you draw the line when determining how much information to share about yourself with students, and why?

I Love You, Snow Day... You Stupid Jerk.

I have lived in the Midwest for my entire life and am therefore accustomed to winters that include the bitter cold breezes, copious patches of slippery ice, and snow - inches and inches of snow, demanding to be shoveled. Challenging you to get to school and work in the morning. Beckoning you to throw your cares away by staying outside and playing a while.

The last couple of winters have brought the Midwest not just heavy snow, but snowpocalypse after snowpocalypse! In January 2014, most schools around my area had an extended winter break because of the snow fall. In fact, most schools around this area had more snow days than actual days of school in the month of January. After I started working at my last full-time job, which I started mid-way through January 2014, there was a point in which I had had more snow days than actual days of work on the job. If I'm being perfectly honest, I was not displeased about the large number of snow days at that point in time; the snow days ultimately reduced my level of stress because they gave me more time to plan lessons, which was helpful because I started working in the middle of the school year and didn't have a lot of time to prepare lessons before I started teaching.

Flash forward to now. January 2015 passed with minimal snow days, but over the weekend... Well, the snowpocalypse returned and has put most schools around here out for two days (and counting! There are rumors of more snow tonight!) While I have enjoyed sitting around in my pajamas the last couple of days, I am slowly getting stressed out thinking about what I have to do before Friday - tasks I can only accomplish while at work! And I feel like I have barely moved a muscle this weekend, too. Walking to the living room didn't used to feel like it took this much effort!

Like students, when I hear that a snowstorm is a'brewin', I stay up late checking news websites to see if school has been canceled. Then, if school is called off...well.... I'm not sure how I react. It depends.

I have always had a love/hate relationship with snow days. On one hand, it's an unexpected (and paid, for teachers) day off. Sleeping in never hurt anybody, right? No rush to get to work, no sarcastic comments from students, more time with the cats... Not a bad deal.

On the other hand, AHHHH, AN UNEXPECTED DAY OFF! How am I going to change my lesson plan to make up for this? Should I move the quiz to Thursday or Friday? Is it really important for the students to do that writing assignment? Can we still get this project done before the end of the quarter if I shift the entire lesson plan over a day? Do my students and I have enough time in the next two days to put together my class' booth for Friday's cultural fair? Basically, snow days are a planning nightmare! How can I relax when there is so much to think about? And what if there's another snow day tomorrow? Then I have to redo the lesson plan YET AGAIN.

I guess snow days, like anything else, are what you make of them. I could, for instance, choose to be stressed out, or I could choose to relax. Or a little bit of both, for the sake of variation and excitement on this day when I am otherwise stuck indoors. Yes, stuck inside...after I ate the last of my Girl Scout cookies (a story for another time.) Ugh.

What is the consensus, fellow educators: Do you embrace snow days with open arms, or are they simply too antagonistic to your lesson planning?

Life's Diverging Roads

In school, students progress: They pass tests. They complete semesters. They advance to the next grade level. They complete degrees. The most difficult part of my transition into adulthood is the fact that after your degrees are complete, this sense of progression seems to diminish. Unfortunately, the amount of progression I have made in life seems linked to my self-worth (maybe it was the years of brainwashing from the modern educational system?), so when I feel that I'm not progressing enough, my inner monologue is bugging me about why I'm not doing more.

Yeah, okay, so you can get a job, and you can keep doing that job until you get promoted. In some businesses, there is more potential for promotions than with others. When one chooses to become a classroom teacher, there isn't a lot of movement that can be made unless one decides to pursue additional education. Teachers have the option of going back to school to add an endorsement to their certification. They can also go for a master's degree or a Ph.D. Oh yeah, and there's also the option of running out of the classroom, hands in the air, determined to never go back, and just pursuing another degree all together in order to switch careers.

...But then there's the money factor. Unless you live in a world of delusion or in some underground mole society that treats its educators as gods, the teaching profession isn't known for its large paychecks, and going back to school costs quite the sum. Before going back to school, a person has to make sure that he/she is committed to put the time, effort, and money into that degree before signing up for the classes. Most people who go back to school must complete their education while also holding a full-time job because, let's face it, people need money and insurance!

My current project is making sure that I have my three full years of full-time teaching, 150 required professional development hours, and two reading courses completed by June 2017. That must be done in order to ensure that I receive my professional certificate before my provisional certificate expires. So far, I'm a little behind on that because I started working full time in January of last year, but I still have time to fulfill these requirements before the expiration date. (Dang, 2017 seemed so much farther away back in 2011!)

On top of working towards this goal, there are a few other options to explore:

1) Getting an Ed.D: A doctorate degree in education would eat up about seven or eight years of my life, but it would open up so many doors and opportunities in the field of education outside of classroom teaching; however, pursuing a doctorate might complicate my life if I end up getting married and having children in the next decade or so. Key word: if  If there's one thing that I've learned, it's that life can never be planned far in advance; rather, it just happens, and it's important to be ready for unexpected changes. An Ed.D. would also involve a long-term commitment to a university and an area of the country. Again, I'm not sure where life is going to take me in the next few years, so I don't know if I'd be able to make that commitment.

2) Going back to school for a math minor so that I can add a math endorsement to my certification. Okay, so for the last two school years, I have taught math to some capacity, even though I'm technically not supposed to do that. (SHHH!!) At my former place of full-time employment, each teacher taught a math elective during fourth quarter due to the absence of a math teacher. At my current place of employment, I seem to be tutoring a lot of kids in math because they are finishing their English classes in a hurry, but they are stuck on math. Having a math endorsement on my certificate would also make me a stronger candidate for other teaching opportunities in the future, and maybe I could eventually work for a unionized school system! (Note: Is that actually a good thing? I've heard mixed reviews.)

3) Getting a Computer Science Bachelor's Degree: I would have to go back to school for a long time to get a bachelor's degree (I wouldn't quit my job to go back full time, so I'd have to go back part-time) and basically start from scratch, but the world needs more programmers. Plus, with an education background, I could work in designing my own educational programs and selling them to schools, especially now that I've gained a lot of hands-on experience with educational programming at my current job. This degree would also give me the flexibility to leave the teaching profession if I so desired and simply become a programmer.

4) Going to the kitchen and eating an orange: Why? Because I wanted to add one item to this list that I could accomplish right away. CHECK!

So many options...and which one to choose? Which commitment to make? Help me, Batman...by which I mean an academic adviser, whom I will call "Batman". Mister or Miss Batman.

I Have a First Name? I Had Forgotten.

Ever since I became a teacher, I have found that I have two distinct personalities/personas.

By day, I am the ever-so-helpful, generally-cheerful, sometimes-irritable Ms. G., who often finds herself in situations in which she is doing ten different tasks at once. Ms. G. is generally a pleasant person, although she cannot tolerate disorderly conduct, and she works to improve her classroom management skills. She focuses on her goal of helping her students improve their academic skills.

Then, I come home and turn back into Stephanie. Stephanie, who doesn't have her life figured out yet. Stephanie, who can be sarcastic, enjoys bright colors, and freaks out when she does not arrive exactly on time. Stephanie, who is trying to make that transition into adulthood, even though she still looks and feels like a child much of the time. Her mind is pulled into many directions at once. She over analyzes the world and the actions of everyone in it. She sometimes still plays video games and colors in coloring books.

One of the biggest challenges I have faced since I started to teach full time is maintaining a life outside of my job, and therefore keeping in touch with the side of me that is still "Stephanie". Socializing with other people my own age has not been at the top of my list of priorities, as I typically leave a day of teaching feeling exhausted and wanting to do nothing more than take a long nap. Then, when I am rested, I wake up and it's time to go to work again! Oh yeah, and dinner and tackling that mountain of grading is somewhere in between...

When I reminisce about my childhood and early adulthood as a college student, I miss having hobbies. I used to play clarinet. I used to paint and draw. I spent Friday nights in college doing all sorts of shenanigans, like filling my dorm room with 300 balloons, making crafts with friends in my hallway, and talking in made-up accents for no reason. A bunch of people in my dorm room hallway and I once held a fake wedding between one of my friends and a blanket and dressed up in mismatching clothes. I am grateful for these hobbies and the memories I have made that are associated with them, and I sometimes find myself longing for the good ol' days of my youth...

Childhood in general is very structured. When a person goes through school, that person is given a schedule that he/she must follow. The same happens when the person goes to college. Once college is over, though, former college students must face the music: adults are not given schedules. You are expected to get a job and work at that job for about eight hours each day, but once you leave work for the day, you are on your own. There are no after-school clubs or organizations; you have to find your own hobbies on your own time. You have to actually make an effort to see your friends because most of them don't work with you.

Oh yeah, and the strangest part about being in your 20s: Your friends who are the same age as you are going through very different stages of life. Some of my friends from high school and college are already married and have children. Others are in medical school or pursuing Ph.D.s and still have years of school ahead of them. Yet others have been working full time for years but have no plans to settle down and get married (a few of my friends my age have never dated anybody before.) One of my friends from high school is married and owns the house down the street from my other friend from high school, who is still living in her childhood home with her parents. No matter where a person finds him/herself at this age, life becomes chaotic for everybody, and adults are fortunate to see their closest friends once or twice a year.

How does an adult maintain a balanced life? How can we find time to socialize or to embrace our talents and hobbies? These are questions I've struggled with for the last few years, and they are questions for which most of my friends around my age don't have an answer because they are pondering the same thing. I am now twenty-six years old. Shouldn't I have this figured out by now? No, and neither does anybody else, apparently. Maybe there isn't a clear-cut answer. Maybe we each have to find our own way that works for us. Or maybe adulthood is about living in a bubble. Who knows!

And now it's time to practice the art of getting up and going to work, an art that has been mastered by both of my personas.

Valentine's Day as a Teacher: Still Stinky

Yes, it's August. Yes, I'm writing about Valentine's Day. Don't worry: you'll survive.

Valentine's Day has never made sense to me. I mean, I understand the concept of Valentine's Day and that it solely exists as a "Hallmark Holiday" that ultimately benefits corporations, but really, what's the point for the rest of us? Why must we conform and celebrate this "holiday" year after year? Whether you're single or in a relationship, it's a holiday that will leave you feeling down.

If you're single, you're upset that you don't have anybody with whom to share this holiday; if you're in a relationship, you are not satisfied with the holiday because no matter what your significant other does for you or vice-versa, some obnoxious person is going to share some over-the-top gesture that his/her significant other did for him/her, making you wonder why your significant other didn't go out of his/her way to do something like that for you. Also, it's a holiday that celebrates showing love to another person; isn't that something that should be happening all the time anyway? Why should a special day be set aside for that?

Schools try their best to shield kids from the unfairness and sorrow that is usually associated with this holiday; in most elementary schools, Valentine's Day is celebrated with a class party in which everybody participates, and those who opt to bring in Valentine's cards and candy are required to bring in a card and candy for each person in the class. It prevents hurt feelings, and it's fair. Good.

The problem starts in middle school.