I watched The Blind Side tonight and I realized quickly as it began that it was going to be a story that reminded me of why I went into teaching. When I first went to college, I was firmly convinced I was going to be a CPA. I loved accounting and had forgotten the childhood dream of being a teacher. Most children say they are going to be a teacher, or a fireman, or a policeman, or the President when they are little, but then as they age, new dreams and goals take shape and form.
That was me. I wanted to be a teacher from the time I was small, but then as others began to influence me, they convinced me teaching wasn't really what I wanted to do. So, off to college I went, firmly entrenched in my desire to major in accounting. However, as I stayed awake nights trying to figure out how to get the spreadsheets to balance and to find some odd error that was causing my balance sheet to be out of balance, I realized............I don't really like doing this. So, I quit college, got married and went to work at the drug store back home. Then I moved on to a job issuing food stamps. Then, I was reading the paper one day and saw an ad for a business teacher at the local high school. My mind raced. My thoughts swirled. Reality surfaced. I realized I could do the job, but was not qualified for the job.
So, bless my husband's heart. It was August and I had him pull up roots and off we went to chase my childhood dream of teaching. I didn't dare tell him the first month or so that I was miserable. School can be depressing. Married housing was not the taj mahal. We were working to make ends meet so I could go to school. There was no time to enjoy school. It was work, school, sleep, work, school, sleep. Then, it happened. That teachable moment. That lightning bolt from the sky. Much like in The Blind Side when she said turn the car around and they went back and picked Michael up and changed his life forever. Dr. Turner did that for me. I turned in a word processing test and she stopped me and said "How are you doing? How do you like Arkansas Tech?" Simple questions, simple words, but they meant to me that someone had noticed me and cared how I was faring at school outside of my immediate family. I had a 'connection'.
Dr. Turner was truly a mentor to me and helped me complete my degree as well as give me the perfect advice I needed to land that first teaching job. As I have gone through my teaching career, I've often remembered the simple questions she asked that made such a difference in my life. "How are you doing? How do you like school?" Isn't it amazing what a difference we can make each day in a child's life. I'm also reminded in The Blind Side where the teachers are talking in the faculty lounge and realize that Michael was learning and if they read the questions to him he knew the answers. One teacher made that difference for Michael and soon other teachers followed in her footsteps. Does every child need a 504 plan or to be in special education in order to get the attention they need to succeed in the classroom? All it really takes is a teacher that cares. Will we catch all students and connect with each of them? Maybe not, but I hazard a guess that Michael's story struck a cord in alot of teachers. Are we being a lightning bolt for students?
Teachers don't teach for the money or the awards or summer and winter break. Teachers teach because they love kids and love being able to make a difference in the life of kids. Many times we never realize what a difference we have made. Hopefully the differences we have made have been positive ones. Most importantly, I hope the biggest difference we can say that we made is that we showed students that we cared for them as individuals and wanted to help them succeed not only in the classroom but in life.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
To Twit or Not to Twit
Approximately a year ago I presented at the 2009 AAIM conference and told my participants that I didn't know what everyone was all a twitter about. I promised them if I could find a purpose for twitter, I would be back this year at the 2010 AAIM conference and do a workshop specifically on twitter. I'm working on that presentation now because I have found a wonderful purpose to twitter and it has amazingly expanded my professional learning network.
Here is what I wrote on my wiki in the beginning stages last year as I tracked my progress as a newbie on twitter.
What is twitter. Click here to learn more.
Is there any real value in twitter. ABSOLUTELY! Since starting my twitter account, I've received tons of tweets that have led me to new technology discoveries. The key is in who you choose to follow. Of course, some people like to follow celebrities. That's ok. However, mix in a few good educational people and the value of twitter beyond a fun distraction becomes evident. How do you find them? This is what I did. I knew of specific people that had twitter accounts that I valued their opinions and ideas. I checked out who they were following. I checked out each person's profile and clicked to follow them. I gave it a week or so. If nothing that they posted seemed to interest me, I removed them. If what they posted interested me, I checked out in turn who they were following. It's a gradual process, but so far it has worked for me. I would hazard a guess it is similar to going to a workshop every day for me. I gather at least one good profitable, idea each day.
Try it yourself. Once you create your account, make sure you follow me. I'm uniqsuseq on twitter.
Here is what I wrote on my wiki in the beginning stages last year as I tracked my progress as a newbie on twitter.
What is twitter. Click here to learn more.
Is there any real value in twitter. ABSOLUTELY! Since starting my twitter account, I've received tons of tweets that have led me to new technology discoveries. The key is in who you choose to follow. Of course, some people like to follow celebrities. That's ok. However, mix in a few good educational people and the value of twitter beyond a fun distraction becomes evident. How do you find them? This is what I did. I knew of specific people that had twitter accounts that I valued their opinions and ideas. I checked out who they were following. I checked out each person's profile and clicked to follow them. I gave it a week or so. If nothing that they posted seemed to interest me, I removed them. If what they posted interested me, I checked out in turn who they were following. It's a gradual process, but so far it has worked for me. I would hazard a guess it is similar to going to a workshop every day for me. I gather at least one good profitable, idea each day.
Try it yourself. Once you create your account, make sure you follow me. I'm uniqsuseq on twitter.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Start a blog, don't start a blog. Decisions, decisions, decisions.
Inspiration. Perspiration. Determination?
Finally, I've decided to just get started. I'm a person that doesn't recommend things randomly and if I do recommend them, I want them to have a true purpose that can help others. In other words, I don't like to waste people's time. Although, I am a talker. So, here goes. Hope you find it worthwhile. A product recommendation with a purpose!
My first topic will be to tell about a product that I think can be of great benefit to school districts. It's the HP130 DesignJet printer. This printer is now on sale for over half off and is less than $1,000 and the possibilities for a district are endless. In fact $1,000 will get you the roll feed attachment, 2 rolls of regular paper and 2 rolls of glossy paper. We purchased one last year and used it with a cross-curricular integration activity. Originally, the athletic department made about $1,000 on these posters. A company sold the ads, created the posters, and gave a portion of the profits back to the school district.
Here's what our school did. The Sports Marketing class sold ads for the sports poster. They learned about salesmanship, marketing, and created some good PR for our district. They divided up in sales teams. As they ventured out they used a blank mock-up design of the poster to show local businesses what they were purchasing and where their ad would be located on the poster. They used cell phones to keep in contact with each other so that they could tell which ad spots had been sold. They also provided each business with a letter and free tickets to games in recognition of their support of the district. As they sold an ad, they provided the business with a receipt and also picked up any ad copy the business wanted to use for their ad spot. When they returned to school, they worked on creating the ads for the poster. The middle section of the poster was created by the Desktop Publishing class. The entire class worked on their design for the middle section of pictures and the sports schedule. The design we liked best was used for all of the printed posters.
There are a variety of applications for a full color poster printer. In our case we used it for hands-on classroom activities that also secured our school over $5,000. It was definitely a win-win. Students learned valuable skills for their future, our school made more money on something they were already doing, and local businesses got to see 100% of their monies funneled back into student use. Future plans include using it in more hands-on activities that will also raise money that will go back into the classroom curriculum. Hands-on activities provide students with realistic glimpses into the future world of work.
Inspiration. Perspiration. Determination?
Finally, I've decided to just get started. I'm a person that doesn't recommend things randomly and if I do recommend them, I want them to have a true purpose that can help others. In other words, I don't like to waste people's time. Although, I am a talker. So, here goes. Hope you find it worthwhile. A product recommendation with a purpose!
My first topic will be to tell about a product that I think can be of great benefit to school districts. It's the HP130 DesignJet printer. This printer is now on sale for over half off and is less than $1,000 and the possibilities for a district are endless. In fact $1,000 will get you the roll feed attachment, 2 rolls of regular paper and 2 rolls of glossy paper. We purchased one last year and used it with a cross-curricular integration activity. Originally, the athletic department made about $1,000 on these posters. A company sold the ads, created the posters, and gave a portion of the profits back to the school district.
Here's what our school did. The Sports Marketing class sold ads for the sports poster. They learned about salesmanship, marketing, and created some good PR for our district. They divided up in sales teams. As they ventured out they used a blank mock-up design of the poster to show local businesses what they were purchasing and where their ad would be located on the poster. They used cell phones to keep in contact with each other so that they could tell which ad spots had been sold. They also provided each business with a letter and free tickets to games in recognition of their support of the district. As they sold an ad, they provided the business with a receipt and also picked up any ad copy the business wanted to use for their ad spot. When they returned to school, they worked on creating the ads for the poster. The middle section of the poster was created by the Desktop Publishing class. The entire class worked on their design for the middle section of pictures and the sports schedule. The design we liked best was used for all of the printed posters.
There are a variety of applications for a full color poster printer. In our case we used it for hands-on classroom activities that also secured our school over $5,000. It was definitely a win-win. Students learned valuable skills for their future, our school made more money on something they were already doing, and local businesses got to see 100% of their monies funneled back into student use. Future plans include using it in more hands-on activities that will also raise money that will go back into the classroom curriculum. Hands-on activities provide students with realistic glimpses into the future world of work.
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