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.