I am just going to be frank here. I have taught two years,
and I have never been truly “excited” for school to start. Of course, this is
contrary to what I have said when people asked me, “Are you excited for school
to start?” I always gave a big, fat “Yes”. Sorry.
The first year, I was just nervous out of control to be
truly excited. The second year, I had kind of a big thing going on (I got
married), and when school came rolling around again, I felt completely unready.
What have I learned? I learned the feeling of being ready is a rare feeling in
teaching for me. The feeling of being
100% ready is a never. I can spend hours upon hours trying to establish the ins
and outs of the lesson, the demands I am making of my students, the anticipated
problems and questions the students will encounter, the connections to be made
… You need to jump in with the best preparation job you can muster.
This year, I can say honestly- I am excited and ready to
just jump in. Here are some reasons why:
1.)
I am blogging this year. During the summer I
have started to follow several awesome blogs. Today, I just read at http://samjshah.com/
about a BLOG INITIATION where I hope to extend my stealing and sharing web even
more. I cannot speak more highly of samjshah and how he has impacted my
teaching. Good bye to teaching in isolation and regular nights of labor to birth
ideas and projects (graphic I know, but it can be ugly). Hello huge network of
teachers to exchange ideas. I already have two great new project
ideas that I took from other blogs.
2.)
I just finished my STEM Externship experience, and we
had a last get together yesterday in Des Moines. From this conference I have
learned about Iowa’s FIRST Tech Challenge where students work with designing programs
and building a functional robot. There is more information at http://iowastem.gov/imsep/businesses/inventory/first-tech-challenge-program.
If you are in Iowa, Rockwell Collins, an aerospace, communications technology, and defense company, is providing support for newby companies. There is the applications and information at http://www.rockwellcollins.com/Our_Company/Corporate_Responsibility/Community_Overview/FIRST/FIRST_Grants.aspx. At the beginning of the year I am going to get kids on board as soon as possible, and if there is interest I will be applying for the Rockwell Collins FIRST robotics grant. My students will learn to be producers of technology. I do not
think there can be anything not exciting about robots.
3.) I get a $150 stipend for my classroom this year,
a generous gift from the STEM Externship program I participated in this summer.
I am thinking about using that money to purchase items for building mini wind
turbines in the classroom. I was directed to Kindwind http://learn.kidwind.org/. I will start
looking into this. I find the idea of my students doing the work with me to
figure out wind turbines a very exciting prospect.
My goals are starting to
seem a bit overwhelming. I have the initiative, however, and am mentally preparing for
the follow through. Gah! I have so much to do!! I definitely don’t miss this
feeling. Again, there is no true feeling of “I feel ready and completely
prepared,” so that only leaves excitement now.
Before I start anything,
I will finish up my summer goals that ends with me creating 10 new calculus videos
for my flipped classroom. This week I will focus on nothing else. Success will
be mine.
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