How Important is the Past?

Everything that has ever happened affects everything that will happen. You are shaped by your memories, experiences, community, environment, and interactions with other people. Teachers, students, parents, and administrators, all are affected by the past. It is important to reflect on this because we cannot truly know understand what is happening in each person's present without acknowledging how they are affected by their past.

Students who have been let down by past teachers can let their experiences affect present their relationship with education or authority. Parents that have had negative experiences with schools can carry over prejudice into their present. Teachers that have struggled with particular students may give up before getting to know the next year's batch. Inversely, students that have had coaches be their cheerleaders, parents that have had tremendous help and support in shaping their children by schools, or teachers that have received presents and gratitude from their students may assume the best in their future students. By asking questions, using empathy, attempting to know each others' past, and acknowledging that each new day can welcome a new positive experience, we can use the present to disrupt past notions of negativity.

All people need positive experiences to feel happy about their situations, and those positive experiences will give way to brighter futures. Breeding negativity only perpetuates into future negativity.

Personally, I cannot let the past negative experiences I have had in my life outweigh the positive experiences I have had in my life. I cannot let students who have had so much negativity in their lives leave my classroom without having positive experiences.

You See with Your Eyes

You Learn From What You See

At a stop sign, do you read the word "STOP" or do you read the color or shape of the sign?

Do you read the limit line on the ground or the elongated letters before it? 

OR

Do you read the bright red lights of the car in front of you?

Does it really matter what you read so long as you stop?

Reading is more than just words on a page. Reading is deriving meaning from someone's attempt to communicate an idea to you or others. This logic can be applied to learning concepts as well.

Everyone learns in their own way. Some people can read words and derive meaning with ease. Others need to see what they are learning and visualize how it works. Still others may even need to practice it with their hands and feel what a concept is before they fully understand it. Even some others have to create something using those concepts to fully understand how it all works together.

What can a teacher do to meet all of these different learning styles?!

Draw a picture!

This week, we have had a lot of fun in class drawing our understanding of concepts on the white board. Students demonstrated how they see gender roles in the past and present by drawing walls, ceilings, stick figures, shapes, colors, animals, and more! Students even made changes and alterations to each other's visuals in front of the class to show how they visualize their own understanding. By allowing students to show the class how they have been "seeing" their learning, class discussions have grown more elaborate. Rather than choosing visuals, students choose their own visuals.



It can sometimes be difficult to explain something in a new way or find a connection that makes sense to someone from a different generation or culture. By letting students show their own connections to concepts in front of the class through visual representations, explaining their understanding visually, manipulating each other's drawings with their hands and minds, and evaluate each other's visuals, students can learn from each other as well as their teacher.

It can sometimes be difficult to find a new way of thinking about something you understand deeply. By letting young minds who are fresh to a concept be a resource to you, you can make things easier on yourself as a teacher and struggling students who need those fresh new views. It will also validate that students are making important, relevant, and helpful connections to concepts that makes learning easier and more rewarding.

Now go out there and let those visual learners make their own connections!

1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Connected Educator Challenge - Accepted!

Greetings and salutations!

Wow! An honest-to-goodness inaugural post!

I am happy to complete the Connected Educator Challenge as I have been challenged by Principal Kristen Witt of Fairfield High School. 

Here are my honest and real responses to the Educator Challenge!

1. What has been your ONE biggest struggle during this school year? 
- My biggest struggle this year has been juggling commute time, family time, family relationships, teacher relationships, student relationships, friend relationships, grading time, lesson planning time, PD time, puppy time, and self-care time into the few hours of the day. I wish there were more hours in the day and more caffeine in coffee. 
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2. Share TWO accomplishments you are proud of from this school year.
- First, I am proud of creating an image, persona, and impact at Fairfield High School this year. I feel like I have been accepted into an elite society of powerful minds and compassionate educators.
- Second, I am proud of the relationships that I have built with my students and seeing students grow and develop over the course of the year. Seeing students improve in their reading or writing abilities, their citizenship and community-involvement, social and leadership skills, or their transition into the high school community makes me feel like I am making a difference in the life experiences of marvelous individuals.

3. What are THREE things you wish to accomplish before the end of the school year?
- First, I want to accomplish my life-long dream of owning a house. I've already got my wife, dogs, truck, and career, so a house would be the next large item on my Life Goal List that I started in high school.
- Second, I want to reduce the amount of F's and D's in my courses and bring those Fall grades up to greater heights of success, citizenship, and reading/writing/speaking/listening abilities!
- Third, I want to see the Pineapple Room grow into the ultimate teacher-driven experience where people feel comfortable, inspired, helped, or helpful with other teachers. I believe that it can  become the greatest hang-out spot / learning center ever created.

4. Give FOUR reasons why you remain in education in today's rough culture.
- First, I remain in education because I told my 1st grade class in my first public speaking assignment that I would be a teacher (I am not a quitter).
- Second, I remain in education because I firmly believe to my core that education is our greatest asset, weapon, activity, way of life, and reason for living (You never stop learning).
- Third, the old saying "from the mouth of babes" stills holds water. I believe that young people have a closer relationship to equality, equity, honesty, fairness, and right/wrong than people with more life experience. Young minds see the world through a beautiful lens. (Youth keeps you young, and that is a fact!)
- Fourth, I want to be mentally challenged by my career and education gives me opportunities to be a leader, student, teacher, role model, and individual person with different challenges to overcome every single day! (I love being a part of a community that strives for excellence!)

5. Which FIVE people do you hope will take the challenge of answering these questions?
- Ryan Clemenson, Amy Lyons, Josh Limneos, Alfredo Sandoval, and Jennifer Huguely