Thoughts As A Teacher

There I stood with one of my student’s phones in my hand eight months ago (who I was helping that had trouble signing into Google Classroom; an iPhone 6s I believe); it buzzed, pinged and vibrated as text message, snap-chat, and other forms of electronic communication and social media came in every few seconds or so.  I then noticed she had a folder on her phone titled; “F*** IT!”  The student clearly was embarrassed by this, but I looked at it and busted out laughing to which she started laughing too (us Teachers have to take advantage of these relationship building moments you know).  I told her, I was there to fix her phone and unless it was illegal, not judge her on the contents (of course the teacher in me advised her that such words were beneath her). Anyway, I became transfixed at all the social media pouring in on her phone to the point it became a “eureka moment” for me.   It dawned on me; “This is the world my students live in and this is the world we need to be teaching in!

August 8, 2017 Time Is Ticking... Well, it's less than two weeks until school starts and (like many of my fellow educators all over America and many parts of the world), I'm both excited and nervous (not unlike going up the steepest incline of a roller coaster ride right before it goes over the top).  I want everything to be right...right for my students...right for their parents/legal guardians...right for my Administrators...right for my fellow teachers and right for myself. I want this to be the year of "student empowerment"  I want to be able to take my State's Standards (the Texas TEKS) and reword it for student understanding.  I than want to give each reworded standard to the students and have them figure out a way to learn/understand it.  Crazy?  Maybe, but I keep reading of outstanding educators (like George Couros) who have done this very thing and have seen their students take OWNERSHIP of the their learning. Would this not be the truest example o