There's an unspoken bond between kids who have lost their parents. This overwhelming sense of calm comes over me when I meet someone or see someone like or reblog one of my posts. Were the only ones who know how we feel, know what to say, what not to say and how to say it... It's not a "club" anyone wants to be part of but it's comforting when you're in this situation.
Okay, so I could be INCREDIBLY late to the bus on this, EduChums.
BUT HAVE YOU SEEN THIS?!? THIS make me almost want to go back into the classroom. Just for a day. Just to watch kids play my all-time favorite-est game ever and discover GLaDOS for themselves.
I know I've been absent. It always happens mid-year for me as testing ramps up, responsibilities get out of hand, and life just generally goes nuts.
But there is news.
On Monday, I stepped away from teaching.
For those of you who want the long story, here it is:
I graduated in December with my degree in Information Science and a grad certificate in Information Management. It was originally my plan that I would use these degrees to make the jump out of education into the information field. I had hoped to make the jump before graduating, but I just loved my online school so much I couldn't just... leave. You know?
Online school is no different than B&M (brick and mortar) in the sense that if you take one leadership position, you get eight more. I went from working 40 hour weeks to working 80 a week. Then I noticed all I did was work and my students were suffering. I couldn't teach. I couldn't do ANYTHING but try to get my workload off my plate. Common complaint of teachers, of course. If you are doing a good job, your hours are more than 40 a week. But I wasn't being a good teacher and I was slowly burning myself out. My admin team told me, in not so many words, to "deal with it."
So, I started applying to jobs. I wasn't serious about stepping away at that point. I was unhappy. Extremely unhappy. I just couldn't leave my kids. So I only applied to my dream jobs. You know those jobs--the ones you never thought you would get a call back for.
I got a few call backs. An interview here, an interview there. Nothing more than the first step. I was called back for a collegiate teaching position twice. I was so excited. Then, the day before Christmas Eve, I was rejected for "lack of experience."
I was devastated. I had the experience they were looking for but it wasn't at the level they had wanted.
So, on Christmas Eve... I made my Christmas wish. I applied for a technology-based position at a college in Arizona. It would bring me close to my family, allow me to spend time with my dying grandfather, and it is everything I loved about working in education--teaching educators how to be more effective. I wanted this job.
I heard nothing until late January when they told me that I had put "Not legally authorized to work in the US" on my application on accident. "Fix it," they said.
I fixed it. Three weeks later, I interviewed for an Instructional Technologist position. They needed someone to teach their faculty how to effectively use technology in online and offline courses. I submitted my doctoral thesis on Learning Management Systems and wrote a second cover letter about my studies and how they could be implemented on their campus. I could do everything they wanted. I've DONE everything they wanted.
I didn't have much hope. I've done this for K-12 for years, but never at a collegiate level. I expected to be turned down again.
Then they gave me the salary sheet. They told me to look at the town, explore my housing options, and make sure I could live on that salary. Uh, yeah. I could definitely live on that salary.
They made a formal job offer contingent upon my start before April. That meant that I had a little over three weeks to finish up my current job and move 13 hours away to Arizona. Okay... done. Gave my two weeks on Monday.
It isn't out of the education world. Let's be honest... I've been rooted here for 10 years. I'm not going anywhere. But it is everything I love about working with teaching professionals. It will allow me to do my doctoral research on real professors, real students, in a real nationally-recognized university. It will allow me to spend my grandfather's final moments with him.
This year, my state is testing seniors in Science and Social Studies. Two years ago, the state testing ended at 10th grade. Last year it was 11th grade. This year it has spread to 12th.
My prediction? Soon my state will require proficient scores for all seniors to graduate. Kind of like England and their final oral exam.
Is it a bad thing? It doesn't have to be. They should be proficient when they leave to have the best chance of success. That was our whole goal, was it not? Kids who don't test well will need the most help, but again that is our job. We teach them to work under all kinds of conditions.
Will it be a bad thing? Depending on execution, probably a horrible idea at first.
Am I looking forward to this? No. Implementing a new "graduation requirement" this year has taught me that even in the online sectors, parents and teens hate change. And that would be a big one.
My sweet Lucky died on Sunday. He had cancer that had spread and was causing internal bleeding. My heart is shattered. He was my best friend. We have been through divorce, break ups, cross-country moves, and exciting new jobs in our eleven years. I was so excited because THIS year I am full time working at home and could spend so much more time with him.... I am so lost. He was my child in every sense. My sunshine. My confidant. My "let's go eat crappy food and drive around" buddy. There is a hole in my heart the size of a 91 pound gentle giant and I have no idea how to bounce back.
As another example, take Stanford psychologist B.J. Fogg, and his experience with starting his flossing habit: “For me, cracking the code on flossing was to put the floss right by the toothbrush, and to commit to myself that I would floss one tooth — only one tooth — every time after I brushed. I could floss them all if i wanted to, but the commitment was just one tooth. [This works] because I was training the behavior. Maybe once every few weeks, I’d only actually floss one tooth, but a majority of the time I’d end up flossing them all.” --Beyond the Miles I've been running for 10 weeks now. School has been up for us teachers for two weeks, with this week being the meeting and "we-still-need-teachers" marathon interviews. The first right weeks were cake. Summer school started at 9 and I could get up at a decent hour, run, and still be showered and happy by 9. At one of the meetings, I was talking to so coworkers about just this quote. I call it the "f*ck it point." It usually happens about 15 minutes into the run when I realize I am dressed like an idiot and far enough away from home to just keep going. Little did I know, I was forming habits. Nice. :)
Do you like teaching online? Why do you teach online as opposed to a physical classroom?
I LOVE my online classroom.
I accepted a job in a regular school in August of last year. It was my seventh year teaching and I thought I was prepared for anything. After being punched and otherwise abused, I decided to make the switch to online to see if life was better there.
I have to say that I LOVE it. I teach one lesson a week and then mini-lessons to the individual kids. I know these kids better than I could ever know my classroom kids and I get to work with them in a closer relationship to make them better students, better readers, better, writers, and epic humans. I wouldn't trade my position for any classroom job. This has been a life-changing, game-changing experience.
Are you able to direct me to some Special Education teachers Tumblrs or blogs or any students in college majoring in Special Education? Thanks in advance for your help. :)
We have lots of great SPED people here! A few off the top of my head are PPT's Educator List: She has a HUGE list of educators. Add your self and search through!
I’d practiced my elementary school “perfect handwriting” so sincerely that now I can’t write anything for adult clients without being slightly embarrassed at how much it looks like it was written by a very neat 2nd grader.
Oh wow. That takes all the fun out of grading. What happens on true/false questions that they don't know? How will they make the perfect "that could be a t or an d" creation?
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