The Good Life

Over the last two years of my education in education I have found myself becoming more and more satisfied with my choice in careers. I know that many people focus on the monetary salary, but there are far more interesting topics when it comes to choosing this path. First, let me begin by saying that if you are not "called" or "feel the pull" into education, you should make sure that you are 110% committed or you might have a difficult time. However, if you decide that you want to be an educator you will find that the monetary payments are just part of the wealth you will receive.

One of the least talked about benefits of becoming a teacher is the relationships that you build with your coworkers. Although I have only spent 4 years in this profession, I can confidently say that I have befriended some of the kindest, funniest, most interesting, intelligent, and fun people on the face of this planet. They have motivated me, inspired me, intrigued me, made me laugh until I cried, and supported me through a myriad of incredibly positive and difficult times. These are people that I know I can count on no matter what the scenario and this was a payment that is far underestimated.

Another benefit of becoming a teacher is the gift of the "AHA" moment, which you can receive on a regular basis. There are so many ways that we as people just stumble upon new understanding, but to help a child get there is my favorite payment from this profession. Sometimes it's a student getting the question right, other times something shifts and they understand something for the first time, but my favorite is when they figure out how to make learning easier. As a teacher, my favorite thing is to empower my students to see how they, as individuals, learn best. Then my payment comes when (sometimes a month later out of nowhere) the student experiences the strategy working and then mind = blown! In the words of one of my favorite mentors, "it gives me sparkles."

Another benefit is the ability to get up in front of a forum and influence as many as 100+ students each day. Now, unfortunately there are some people who abuse this privilege or don't take full advantage of this, but this is a gift to which many people do not have access. Think of other professions that allow this - preachers, doctors, lawyers, sometimes CEO's and business owners. These are some of the most influential people in our communities! Of course, this can be seen as self-indulgent, and maybe it is a little, but when used the correct way for positive endeavors, I would argue that the leader receives a higher payment.

The final benefit that I will mention here (there are certainly more benefits) is as a teacher, we receive time away from our workplaces. I shy away from calling it "time off" because this becomes confrontational among some, but the fact of the matter is that most of us only go to the office for 180 days each year. For those that don't know, most teachers spend part of their summer breaks working and a substantial amount of time working additional hours during the school year. For example, during the summer about 4 of the 8 weeks I spend coaching and going to conferences and during the year, I work on average 60-70 hours per week. However, between Fall, Winter, Spring, and Summer breaks (and the occasional 3 day weekends) I can say that I get plenty of time to enjoy personal pursuits.

All in all, this profession has provided me with so much more than just a salary. It has given me friends, personal satisfaction, a voice as a leader, and time to myself, just to name a few. If you are serious about making a difference and are thinking of taking the step to become an educator, I promise that you will be greatly rewarded.

Tried and True Resources

To start my catalog of online resources, I thought I would start with the instructional tools that I used on a regular basis last year. The following links lists their uses and my reviews, but they are ones that I used mainly because they didn't take a lot of effort to get up and running. Between teaching a new subject at a new school in my 2nd year, adjusting to 7th grade vs. 11th grade, and coaching football and wrestling, I didn't have time to spend setting up or learning how to use a confusing platform. Therefore, if you are wanting some online resources to engage students, enrich your content area, help with classroom management, or just do something different, the following tools will get you started!

Prezi - Simple, Interactive Presentations

This is my favorite way to present material. It's different from .ppt, but just as easy to use (easier, in my opinion) and students can use it to collaborate on projects. It also has a search function, so you may not have to make that presentation on the fall of Rome from scratch! My students love it, too. On several of my collaborate projects, they chose to use this over .ppt since they could share it and work on it together from anywhere.




Dropbox - Cloud-based storage and sharing

My go to storage for docs, files, pictures, videos, etc. You get 4GB free with each login and all you need is an email address. Some of the positive features include having an app (print, share, get files from mobile devices) and it is fast and easy to upload, download, and share files. I currently house all of my files for 2 year's worth of instruction and my graduate classes and still have space left.





Poll Everywhere - Online Polling

Just like the name implies, poll everywhere lets you create questions in multiple formats (multiple choice, true/false, open ended) and students enter answers via text messages. I like this because I could get immediate feedback from students and students liked this because they could text answers and see changes happen. Excellent for Bell Ringers or Exit Tickets! What else can you come up with?





Doceri - Control Your Desktop from Your iPad
Doceri connects your iPad to your desktop and provides several styles of whiteboard (white, graphed, maps, etc.). I used this many times when I was giving presentations or needed to draw on the board. It allowed me to roam around the room while doing those things - a great way to manage behavior. Fun to use and my students thought it was really cool, as well!



Wordle - Word Collages

Free and easy way to generate word collages on any topic you choose. My students liked it because you can change colors, fonts, and designs. My favorite way to use this is to hold a brainstorming session and then write all the words into the generator. This really shows you what was most prevalent as the words increase in size the more they are mentioned.

Padlet - Online Bulletin Board
Padlet is exactly what it says above - an open bulletin board. You choose the background and share the url and then students can start posting comments, pictures, and links. My students really enjoyed using this posting board and I liked that it gave all students a voice. As a teacher, it is easy to moderate, since you can delete and move any comment posted and I used it for brainstorming, discussions, and comments during videos or presentations.




Symbaloo - Personal Organizer of Web Resources

Funny name, but serious tool! Symbaloo allows you to collect all of your online research on one page which looks a lot like the Apple interface. I was really impressed with this tool's ease of use, cool design, and versatility. I created pages for project resources, enrichment research, and even made a web quest using this platform. My students loved it and some even used it for research projects in other classes.

Today's Meet - Free Online Discussion Room

Like a private chat room, today's meet allows you to create an open forum discussion online. Students can use mobile devices or computers to contribute without log in - simply enter in a name and start adding comments/questions. With this and Padlet, an initial discussion of proper use and a healthy dose of moderating were needed, but once my students got the hang of it, this worked wonders. I especially liked that those students who typically didn't contribute to discussions had a new way of communicating with the class.

Edmodo - Online Learning Center - Facebook Style

The ever-popular online instruction platform! I started using this towards the end of the year last year and regretted not starting sooner. Think of Facebook for your classroom - post assignments, discussion topics, alerts, quizzes, and polls to your virtual classroom. This makes the Flipped Classroom strategy simple. Students get a unique login (parents can access, too) and if applicable, they can get notifications on their mobile devices from your class. I like that you can track assignments and go semi-paperless and that it is a running log of your class, so when one of your lovelies misses a day, just tell them to check edmodo! It does take using it for 2-3 weeks for you to see the benefits and students to get used to you using it, but well worth the effort.

Quizlet - Online Quiz Database/Generator

This is a quiz MECCA! Especially for Math, but other content areas are picking up steam. It is an online platform, but you can print quizzes off of the site, so no worries if your students can't access the web. The best thing about this tool, is the more you create, the easier it becomes - think whatever test generator your system currently uses (e.g. Exam View). If you can access online, the tool will track student completion, grades, and compile data on each student and question. I used this to help me target what learning objectives students were struggling with and occasional quizzes where I needed quick response and usable data.

Drive - Cloud-based Document Creator/Organizer

Google Drive, the greatest teacher's friend since the apple. I also came late to the party on this last year and I will never go back. Google Drive lets users generate word documents, spread sheets, and presentations online, but there is SO much more. Teams can share one document and work simultaneously, while chatting and it is accessible anywhere you can log onto to Google. The best feature (my favorite thing since discovering coffee) is Google's research tool. When you open the research bar on the right of whatever document you are working, you get a Google search bar and can simply click and drag pictures, links, quotes, etc. onto the document. Best of all, it will include a citation in the document for each item!! You will never have to teach students how to write a bibliography again!

The Start of Something...

As I end the 3rd week of my summer break, I have found myself constantly thinking of all the new tricks and strategies that I want to try next year. However, I can't seem to talk myself out of being selfish during the very few hours per day that I have for myself (between wife, boys, and to-do lists). This often equates to naps, complete wasting of time on tech, or getting personal projects completed. SO, I have forced myself to start a blog for that very reason. I read a tweet earlier this Spring, which said "with the right bloggers, blogs can be used as an interactive professional journal discussing relevant EDU Topics" (@tomwhitby). This really spoke to me since I have found a wealth of info from online communities and want to pass on the info.

With this in mind, I'll be compiling various resources to catalog for my own use, but wish for more out of this blog. I wish for it be found and used by other educators/administrators/contributors and to serve as a forum for how we can make this profession simpler, together. Lord knows we could all use this right now!

Well, that's it - happy summering for all the teachers and students out there and we'll see how this goes...