Showing posts with label Random Thoughts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Random Thoughts. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

An Open Letter to My HAL Students #MRPHAL

Dear students,

I tried to sum up the year in the last few minutes of the exam and I sounded like a moron. I had everything so well thought out and I just rambled and bumbled my way thorough an incoherent sting of sentences. So, I thought I would do what I do best and write a few thoughts.

Above everything else, I want to make sure you know that I am so very proud of everything you have accomplished this year. I'm not just talking about 20 Time or TEDx, I'm talking about everything you have done this year. You have grown as writers and thinkers in an educational setting, but you have also grown as individuals. One of the best parts of this job is watching young adults mature and take the next step in their lives. While you may have stumbled along the way, all of you picked yourself up, dusted yourself off, and were ready to take the next step. No matter what life threw at you, you were ready for the challenge. Never think you cannot do anything you want. All of you have the capacity for greatness, you just have to be willing to step up and show the world.

I also want to thank you for following me in this crazy adventure this year. I'm always trying something new and I am terrible at hiding my excitement for new things. You rolled with the punches, let me fall flat on my face, and made sure I stood back up. There were days when I didn't bring my "A" game and you were more understanding of that than I probably was when you did not have yours. For those that did not take to projects and some of my others lessons, thank you for playing along. You could have made the class difficult and fought me tooth and nail, but you tried and I hope you walked away with something from those projects. I also want to thank you for your honesty. I can only get better when I get honest feedback from you. I want class to be better for the next group of students that sit in your seats and you are the best people to help me do that. I want to thank you for your sassiness. I think a class without a little push back and sass is a boring class. You always brought that and those were my favorite times. Lastly, thank you for the memories. The long conversations, the squirrel shaped student declaration of independence, the struggle for "Dream Team" status, the lib dub battle, the ginger jokes, Jane Gallagher, symbols everywhere or nowhere, "not guilty" verdicts, Utopian societies, blog posts, and so much more will be remembered long after you leave this classroom and this school.

Finally, I want to say good luck. You are all so very talented in your own special ways. Some of you are still looking for those talents, but when you find them, you are going to blow people away with your awesomeness. My door is always open to you for anything you need to talk about and, most importantly, my charging station is always available when your batteries are low. Have a great Summer and I'll see you in the Fall. Until then...Allons-y!

Mr P

TEDxGrossePointeSouthHS Crew

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

The Choir #edchat

I'm not sure what I hope to accomplish with this post, but it is a thought I have in my brain and the reasonI started this blog was to get thoughts out of there and onto here.

At what point are we all just preaching to the choir? I engage in conversation after conversation and most people walk away feeling good that others agree with their point. Am I not challenging myself enough by butting heads with people I disagree? Is it bad that I do not want to spend my free time arguing with others over Twitter? I want change and I'm applying for jobs that could put me in a position to start change, but is that enough?

I'm not being critical of others that share an engage on Twitter. If I am, that is not my intent. I feel like I hit a wall of frustration as I listen to more and more people talk about the right way to do things and the people that are in charge never seem to listen or choose not to.

What is the next step? We write, tweet, share, etc on how to do things, but what is step two? How about step 3? Do we continue to rage against the machine and do what we can in our isolated pockets and hope it just happens?

I do not have the answer to this question and that is where the frustration stems. I want to do more, but can a teacher do it on their own? Is it a fruitless task if we are not empowered to make the change that is necessary to help our students and better ourselves?

I'm not expecting for anyone to come in a give me the answer, but I guess I'm curious to see who is just as frustrated. It might be good for others if we all shared our frustration.

IDK...

Friday, September 9, 2011

Random Thoughts

I'm starting a new type of posts that I'm calling Random Thoughts. These posts are going to be a compilation of thoughts that are too long for Twitter, but too short for their own post. I feel like this year is going to be filled with great and exciting things, but they might not fit in a specific post. Feel free to share your random thoughts to me in the comment box.

As part of my random thoughts series, I will post a random picture from a random Google Images Search. Enjoy!



Why the heck are you not blogging or on Twitter?
Yesterday I was able to take a student to meet the Secretary of Education. Actually, my student didn't just meet Secretary Duncan, he was actually given a 10-15 minute interview. My student was also able to meet the Governor of Michigan, the Mayor of Detroit and the Superintendent of Schools of Michigan. For an eighteen year old aspiring journalist, this was a huge score. What does this have to do with blogging or Twitter? Everything.

At the end of June, I wrote a post entitled, "Why is the Department of Education Terrible at Social Media?" At this point, I had actually been in touch with @EdPressSec Justin Hamilton and had some nice discussion about teacher involvement in policy. After my post went live, he connected me to Cameron Brenchley from the Outreach part of the DOE and we have been working on some cool things. Cameron was the one who worked hard to get me a spot on the bus to interview Secretary Duncan and worked even harder to get my student there.

My main point is that this would not have been possible if it were not for my blog or my Twitter account. My social media presence allowed me to connect with people that allowed me to set up an amazing learning experience for my student. There are still people, some in my own district, that think that social media does not have a place in schools. If an interview with the Secretary of Education, who is pro technology in education btw, doesn't convince people to use Social Media, I do not know what will.

10,000 Followers

A friend pointed out I had passed the 10,000 Follower mark. I laughed and wondered what 8,000 bots are doing following me on Twitter. The number of followers is awesome, but it's not about the number of followers. When I started 2 years ago, I never set out to get a certain number. I just kind of let that number roll on with out much of a thought. I want newbies out there to never be intimidated by the number of followers a person might have. To be honest, some of the most helpful people actually have the most followers. Maybe that's the connect.

Unblocked Sites

My school district decided to unblock some sites that had been blocked in the past. YouTube, Flickr and Google Images were the big ones. I would love to take the credit for making this happen, but it was a decision made by the whole group and I want to give them the props they deserve for supporting this change in policy. It was one of my goals, but it would not have been possible without their support. If you are reading this, thanks and I hope to keep thing moving.

My Throat is Killing Me

Am I the only one that gets a scratchy throat the first few days back at school? IS that a bad thing in the sense that I'm talking to much and I should do more listening the first couple of days back? I'm really going to think about that next year. Really. I left a note for myself to think about it.

Blogging and RSS Feeds

I helped my Am Lit students set up their blogs and their RSS feeds. I will share the class wiki so people can look at their blogs once we get rolling. If you are interested in connecting our classes for some blogging projects, leave me a comment and we can chat.

I think that is it for now. Have a great night everyone!

- @TheNerdyTeacher