Adapting this summer

This summer I have been adaptive by scheduling out time to work on homework. I also have been adaptive with trying to find new sources and trying to workout a new idea for my classroom for my AR. I have had to say no to things that happen on class days or on nights before class in order to be well rested and prepared.

People in my life have had to make adaptations to my schedule as well. Luckily knowing dates in advance helps so my friends and family have tried to schedule things that are not on those weekends. I'm currently the maid of honor in my friends' wedding for next year but we have been scheduling dress appointments and stuff on weekends that I don't have class so that I can be there to help out. They have also been understanding and supportive of me needing to get work done every week.

Teach with your Strengths: Unorthodoxly

I've had many best teachers in my life; which I am lucky to say. For this post, I could talk about my Chemistry teacher who always made our class feel special and honored because she didn't retire till after us in order to teach us all. Or I could talk about my English teacher and mentor who was eccentric and helped us understand material through weird projects and had students vote on his baby's name. But the one I would probably declare as the best would be the one that inspired me to be a social studies teacher myself, Ms. Neal.

She made every class interesting, whether it be from the different activities that we did, like an outside version of the triangle trade game, and infused her teaching with who she was. She was majorly into yoga and I can still remember her being up in front of the room and just standing on one leg with her other curled up and resting on a small table nonchalantly. We would take breaks during class and do yoga occasionally to reset. She showed her passion and excitement for the topic and made me realize how much I really love history and how much fun it could be to teach it. I still remember getting the "Future Social Studies Teacher" Award from her at the end of the year. I think one of her strengths was Positivity, she always showed her excitement for history in a way that pulled others in.

I know that I get part of my love of history teaching and teaching it through experiential learning like simulations or written word like short answers or essays from her. Her class was one of the first that I experienced how well social studies and activities and writing went together and actually taught me how to write a social studies based paper. I would say what is unorthodox about my teaching style is I'm not afraid to be real with kids. I constantly admit to my mistakes and weaknesses to them; in fact it's almost a running joke with a lot of my classes that I'm awful at basic math. I'm also not afraid to geek out in front of my kids about a topic and show them who I am. I also spend a lot of time getting to know them throughout the year and I am not afraid to stay after school just to be a place for students to come in and hang out in afterwards to get help or talk things through.

I am an Introvert... and that's powerful!

At our last F2F, we watched a TED talk by Susan Cain about the power of introverts. A lot of things she said resonated with me and here are my responses to the 4 reflective questions about it:

1. Are you an introvert or an extrovert?
• I would and have for a long time classified myself as an introvert, though many are shocked when I tell them this due to my personality at work and with people where I'm very conversational and bubbly and smiley. 
2. What specific characteristics, qualities or examples support this perception of yourself? 
• I classify myself as an introvert because I am physically exhausted after hanging out with people. I definitely recharge by being by myself and doing individual activities; in fact, my roommate situation works perfectly because I am a Night Owl and my roommate goes to bed by 9pm most nights so I usually stay up later and just enjoy some time to myself and work on stuff. I definitely recognize when I'm getting tired of people and I'm kinda ashamed to admit it, but there have been times where I will come home from a day at work and just bite off my family's heads when they try to converse with me before I've had some time to decompress and recharge. 
3. As an instructional leader, how have you made sure (or in the future how will you make sure) to set up both types of students for success? 
• As a teacher, I have tried to incorporate lots of wait time or write time. I utilize popsicle sticks so I hear from lots of different students and hold them accountable but I also make it a point to say "I'm calling random names for answers at the end of this time, so make sure you have something down" or allowing them to phone a friend if they have nothing. I also provide multiple types of seating choices so students can stand, sit on the floor, at pods, single tables, free-standing chairs, etc based on what they need for themselves. When I do projects in my room, I typically allow the choice of solo, partner, or in a group of three for options of grouping for students when I let them choose. I also have switched my worktime this last year to starting with 15 minutes of quiet, individual, in your seat worktime on an assignment or task before I allow students to move around and work with friends. This gives us a quiet atmosphere for students to focus and get started and ask questions. 
• For extroverts, I have review games that involve movement and competition, group projects, presentations(with video options for those who want it) and lots of other options for that group. 
4. What specific strategies will you make a commitment to use? 
• I will continue utilizing the strategies that I have talked about above. I also think I'm going to incorporate flipgrids so that students can individually share their reflections instead of needing to say it immediately in front of the classroom. 

"I am enough"

After watching a TED talk by Brene Brown and the Power of Vulnerability, the proposition that stuck with me was the phrase "I am enough". My roommate and I often have conversations surrounding this topic; about our personal lives as well as our teachers. We often experience "teacher guilt" - am I doing enough for my students? Is what I'm doing rigorous? Am I preparing my students for their future lives? That lesson was just awful, I'm a horrible teacher and my kids deserve better. These are all phrases that have been uttered by the both of us at times. We laugh because usually one of us is the cheerleader or voice of reason when this happens and points out that we are doing our best and that our students will never have another 8th grade social studies teacher and so they don't have anyone to compare us to for this content. Or to remind us that we are constantly getting better or that we are doing good things and it was just a bad day.

In our personal lives, there's always a thought of "Am I going to end up alone for the rest of my life" or "If I was more in shape or wore these types of clothes or did these things, etc" than that would make me better or more attractive. This is something that is commonplace in our society - for teachers and for everyday people as well.

Brene Brown brings up a great point in her talk - we need to remember that "I am Enough". Who I am as a person and as a teacher is enough for my students, for anyone else, and more importantly for myself. This doesn't mean that I can't improve myself or learn to be better - lord knows I've got things that I could improve upon both in my classroom and out - but it gives me the freedom to admit my mistakes and be kind to myself. It gives me the allowance to say "I'm not grading tonight" or "I'm throwing this lesson together 5 minutes before class because I needed to sleep or hang out with friends last night". It allows me to be gentle with myself and remind myself that who I am as a person is enough for where I am in life right now.

What's your Why?

My master's class recently watched Simon Sinek's video about how Great Leaders inspire action. In it, he talks about the Golden Circle; this way of organizing the what, how, and why of what you are doing. He explains that the great leaders start from the innermost part of the circle; they define their Why behind what they are doing and they allow the Why to guide their actions.

For my experience as an educational leader, my Why is to help students become geo-literate and to have life-long skills of resiliency and perseverance. My How is done through the various lessons and subjects I teach such as the Water Crisis or the Syrian Refugees and opportunities to correct homework and tests. My What is what I do on a daily basis in my classroom to teach Global studies.

In my classroom, we talk a lot about how it is important to understand our world around us in order to make better decisions about it. We begin with the Why it is important to understand our world at the beginning of the year instead of the what we will be doing over the course of the year.

The Quiet Rebellion

Today's climate for teaching is an interesting one. It is one of teacher strikes, worry for school shootings, and dealing with everyone's input on what teaching should be or what it all entails. I recently read a news story about how Donald Trump Jr. congratulated students on attending a rally and standing firm and not listening to their "loser teachers" who are trying to indoctrinate them with socialist tendencies. My immediate response was anger and frustration - like a lot of teachers who responded to it with everything that teachers do on a daily basis.

Then I looked at a quote from "The Well-Balanced Teacher" that said:

"It seems to me that the best teachers are the ones who are quietly rebellious"

This quote resonated with me in a unique way. We as teachers face so much outside pressure and have to deal with non-teacher entities trying to control what we do and how we teach our students or even criticizing the importance of our work. But we as teachers have a quiet power. We have the opportunity to influence and impact our students' lives for the worse or hopefully the better. When I think about that quote, it reminds me of that power we have and that we have a duty to work and try to make things better by showing our students what it means to work together or how they can be more resilient. I think it also goes to show that the best teachers listen to what they are being told to do; by principles or districts or governments; and they find the gray area where what is best for their students and their future and the procedures and programs implemented by higher ups overlap. 

As a social studies teacher, and more importantly a global studies teacher, I try to instill life long lessons with my students. We talk about the importance of the world and it's issues and I try to instill in them the belief that they have the power to change what is happening. With social studies, I get a lot of the questions about the political system and what is going on in the world and I see the effect that the news and media have on my students opinions and beliefs. Part of my quiet rebellion is to create lessons that make my students question the world around them and understand that they have the power to change and improve what is happening; that they too have the power to be quietly rebellious and to instigate and spread change little by little to make the world better. 

The Start of the Journey

This week I interviewed a First-year teacher and my Language Arts teammate about what inspired her to become a teacher and what her journey this year has been like. It hasn't been long since I was in my first year but it's nice to reflect back on those days and remember what it was like; and how much I have grown so far.

As I talked to her about her journey to become a teacher, I noticed a lot of similarities and some differences. We both had an experience related to the education field in high school that we enjoyed and that sparked our interest in teaching. For her, it was creating a leadership based curriculum as a MN state ambassador for 4H. For me, it was an after school program with elementary school students working with them to help with homework and improve their math and reading skills. We also had teachers in our lives that inspired us with how they taught their content. Hers was an individual who made learning interactive and inspired students to be more inquisitive and wanting to read. Mine showed me that teaching and learning about history can be fun and interactive and that it can include simulations where students get to experience concepts of what happened.

We both felt supported by our families. Hers more so as they pushed her to be more inquisitive and curious about the world around her. Mine for a while questioned why someone so academically smart wanted to go into teaching instead of a profession that would make more money. Eventually, they realized that teaching is what I want to do and I have a real passion for it.

It's just something that both surprises me and makes complete sense, that teachers have different stories and support but that all those stories share similar traits. There's always a teacher that inspired us to join the profession and some sort of experience that led us to believe that "yes, this is what I was made to do".