It's no secret that I love using technology when I teach students. Educational technology is something I am very passionate about and I love learning more about how to use it; that's why this blog exists. Today's post is something I have been thinking about a lot lately even though it has nothing to do with a particular technology tool. Besides technology, hallmarks of my teaching are incorporating the arts (I was the theatre and choir student my whole life and have learned so much from those experiences) and engaging students in what interests them and their passions.
When I taught sixth grade ELA, I noticed at the beginning of the year that one of my students loved to write stories. One day, he came up to me after class with a story he had been writing outside of my classroom. Many of my students (well, most) sadly did not share his passion for writing and constantly asked me why they had to learn to write. I should add that many loved writing at the end of the year. I read his story and encouraged him to keep writing his story. He was truly an author and I loved getting to encourage him to keep working on his story. In class assignments, I also allowed students to have choice. One of my favorite writing assignments was our compare and contrast essay in late fall. I didn't give students a topic to compare and contrast. I let them choose their own and then approved it. Having sixth grade boys, I had students who compared professional sports teams and players (I read a lot of essays about the Spurs players and pro NFL teams) When we did our book review in May, I allowed students to write about the book they were currently reading in their reading class. Students were frequently writing about the interests and passions they had, invested in the work and I was still able to assess their understanding of concepts.
As teachers, I feel that we strive so much to nurture our students' passions and truly engage their interests in learning. Because of this, I feel that sometimes we forget our own outside of teaching, of course. After getting rid of all the toxic energy in my life in late spring this year, I found the passion for teaching again. When you have so much stress and have someone telling you that you should quit teaching (as I did most of the past year), it not only drains your passion, but also your confidence. It took me the month of May and early part of June to become as passionate as I was three years ago when I completed the MAT program. That being said, I have always loved teaching and working with children. My love of children is the main reason that I signed up to work pretty much everything at my church this summer. Working on one weekday night and weekends means making sacrifices to my social calendar, but these kids and families are truly a part of my heart.
Many people know that, aside from teaching, theatre is a major passion of mine. In fact, there was a time in my life (beginning of high school) when I wanted to pursue acting. I could not be happier that I decided to go the education route. I was still involved in shows both as an actress and stage manager in college, and still attend as many shows as I can now (I am fortunate that my mom has season tickets to Broadway Across America shows) and am constantly listening to cast recordings. Many people also don't know that I'm incredibly passionate about style. In another world, I would have wanted to work as an event planner (there's a reason I was Formal Rush Chair for my sorority sophomore year) or in fashion. I was never the girl in college who could roll out of bed and go to class in a t-shirt and gym shorts/sweatpants. I was ready for the lifestyle of working at a school from 6:45 to 4 or 5 every day my sophomore year.
One night in May of this year, after rediscovering my passions in life and gaining my confidence as a teacher back, I was browsing Facebook and thinking about what I wanted to do this summer, when I came across an ad for a company called Chloe + Isabel. Immediately, I looked up the company's website. That night, I decided to apply for a Merchandiser position online because it "seemed like fun" and was perfect for me. I would get to work flexible hours from home, get to wear beautiful jewelry, talk about it at parties which I would get to plan and run/curate my own online boutique. I was able to skip the interview process and got the acceptance email that night. I'd never thought of myself as an entrepreneur. I saw my friends (also teachers) running their own successful R + F businesses but thought I'd never do anything like that. I didn't immediately order my starter kit, but rather slept on the idea of becoming an entrepreneur and also thought about it at the gym next morning. I had doubts and wondered if it was for me. The gym has always been the place where I've gotten my best lesson ideas and do my best thinking. When I got home, I decided to invest in the starter kit and spent most of the day watching online training videos in my online office. I was so excited to do something else I was truly passionate about on my own time. Now I couldn't be more glad I made this decision.
Later in June, I decided to launch the other passion project of mine--this educational technology blog--after attending an unconference at ISTE. I often find myself learning about new things in the technology world from my constantly expanding social media network of teachers and education professionals and want to share them with my teacher friends. I thought a blog would be the best way to share what I'm learning and discovering about ed tech.
You may ask yourself what these two passion projects of mine have to do with teaching, learning and educational technology. First, I was inspired to write this post after attending my friend's business launch party Friday night and reading about our C + I CEO Friday morning. As teachers, I feel that so often, we have passions besides education that get pushed to the side. Teaching is draining and consumes our lives. During my first year teaching, I spent so much time at school. I got there at 6:45 in the morning and was able to get so much work done in the 45 minutes before school because my classroom was at the end of the hallway and none of my team got there that early. I spent almost three hours after school on Fridays long term planning lessons, projects and assessments and then weekends grading essays. Since I had 110 students, I got really good at creating and using rubrics. I tried to plan all my curriculum from scratch relying only on the TEKS and list of topics to be covered each nine weeks. In short, I tried to do everything on my own, occasionally going to the former 6th grade ELA teacher's room when I was not sure of what to plan. I spent a lot of time on Pinterest, Teachers Pay Teachers and Google searching. I had no social life, was always thinking about teaching or was at the gym where I was still probably thinking about teaching and lessons. After a summer dedicated to preparing for my classroom and year ahead, writing curriculum and attending iPadpalooza, I realized how much teaching consumed my entire life.
Becoming involved in my passions outside of school has been a gradual process. I'm now part of two Trinity alumni organizations, a member of an incredible children's ministry team, I socialize now, engage in my love of writing through this blog, still attend plays and musicals, and most recently became an entrepreneur with a company that I grow to love more everyday because of the beautiful products and the amazing women who support me from all over the country.
I intend on working just as hard as I did my first year (probably even harder) when I have my own classroom again, but it is my hope that I can continue to inspire and nurture my students' passions and also encourage them to dream big through my story of becoming an entrepreneur (which I never thought would be me but was a huge risk), running my own business and developing my own educational technology blog.
-Elle
When I taught sixth grade ELA, I noticed at the beginning of the year that one of my students loved to write stories. One day, he came up to me after class with a story he had been writing outside of my classroom. Many of my students (well, most) sadly did not share his passion for writing and constantly asked me why they had to learn to write. I should add that many loved writing at the end of the year. I read his story and encouraged him to keep writing his story. He was truly an author and I loved getting to encourage him to keep working on his story. In class assignments, I also allowed students to have choice. One of my favorite writing assignments was our compare and contrast essay in late fall. I didn't give students a topic to compare and contrast. I let them choose their own and then approved it. Having sixth grade boys, I had students who compared professional sports teams and players (I read a lot of essays about the Spurs players and pro NFL teams) When we did our book review in May, I allowed students to write about the book they were currently reading in their reading class. Students were frequently writing about the interests and passions they had, invested in the work and I was still able to assess their understanding of concepts.
As teachers, I feel that we strive so much to nurture our students' passions and truly engage their interests in learning. Because of this, I feel that sometimes we forget our own outside of teaching, of course. After getting rid of all the toxic energy in my life in late spring this year, I found the passion for teaching again. When you have so much stress and have someone telling you that you should quit teaching (as I did most of the past year), it not only drains your passion, but also your confidence. It took me the month of May and early part of June to become as passionate as I was three years ago when I completed the MAT program. That being said, I have always loved teaching and working with children. My love of children is the main reason that I signed up to work pretty much everything at my church this summer. Working on one weekday night and weekends means making sacrifices to my social calendar, but these kids and families are truly a part of my heart.
Many people know that, aside from teaching, theatre is a major passion of mine. In fact, there was a time in my life (beginning of high school) when I wanted to pursue acting. I could not be happier that I decided to go the education route. I was still involved in shows both as an actress and stage manager in college, and still attend as many shows as I can now (I am fortunate that my mom has season tickets to Broadway Across America shows) and am constantly listening to cast recordings. Many people also don't know that I'm incredibly passionate about style. In another world, I would have wanted to work as an event planner (there's a reason I was Formal Rush Chair for my sorority sophomore year) or in fashion. I was never the girl in college who could roll out of bed and go to class in a t-shirt and gym shorts/sweatpants. I was ready for the lifestyle of working at a school from 6:45 to 4 or 5 every day my sophomore year.
One night in May of this year, after rediscovering my passions in life and gaining my confidence as a teacher back, I was browsing Facebook and thinking about what I wanted to do this summer, when I came across an ad for a company called Chloe + Isabel. Immediately, I looked up the company's website. That night, I decided to apply for a Merchandiser position online because it "seemed like fun" and was perfect for me. I would get to work flexible hours from home, get to wear beautiful jewelry, talk about it at parties which I would get to plan and run/curate my own online boutique. I was able to skip the interview process and got the acceptance email that night. I'd never thought of myself as an entrepreneur. I saw my friends (also teachers) running their own successful R + F businesses but thought I'd never do anything like that. I didn't immediately order my starter kit, but rather slept on the idea of becoming an entrepreneur and also thought about it at the gym next morning. I had doubts and wondered if it was for me. The gym has always been the place where I've gotten my best lesson ideas and do my best thinking. When I got home, I decided to invest in the starter kit and spent most of the day watching online training videos in my online office. I was so excited to do something else I was truly passionate about on my own time. Now I couldn't be more glad I made this decision.
Later in June, I decided to launch the other passion project of mine--this educational technology blog--after attending an unconference at ISTE. I often find myself learning about new things in the technology world from my constantly expanding social media network of teachers and education professionals and want to share them with my teacher friends. I thought a blog would be the best way to share what I'm learning and discovering about ed tech.
You may ask yourself what these two passion projects of mine have to do with teaching, learning and educational technology. First, I was inspired to write this post after attending my friend's business launch party Friday night and reading about our C + I CEO Friday morning. As teachers, I feel that so often, we have passions besides education that get pushed to the side. Teaching is draining and consumes our lives. During my first year teaching, I spent so much time at school. I got there at 6:45 in the morning and was able to get so much work done in the 45 minutes before school because my classroom was at the end of the hallway and none of my team got there that early. I spent almost three hours after school on Fridays long term planning lessons, projects and assessments and then weekends grading essays. Since I had 110 students, I got really good at creating and using rubrics. I tried to plan all my curriculum from scratch relying only on the TEKS and list of topics to be covered each nine weeks. In short, I tried to do everything on my own, occasionally going to the former 6th grade ELA teacher's room when I was not sure of what to plan. I spent a lot of time on Pinterest, Teachers Pay Teachers and Google searching. I had no social life, was always thinking about teaching or was at the gym where I was still probably thinking about teaching and lessons. After a summer dedicated to preparing for my classroom and year ahead, writing curriculum and attending iPadpalooza, I realized how much teaching consumed my entire life.
Becoming involved in my passions outside of school has been a gradual process. I'm now part of two Trinity alumni organizations, a member of an incredible children's ministry team, I socialize now, engage in my love of writing through this blog, still attend plays and musicals, and most recently became an entrepreneur with a company that I grow to love more everyday because of the beautiful products and the amazing women who support me from all over the country.
I intend on working just as hard as I did my first year (probably even harder) when I have my own classroom again, but it is my hope that I can continue to inspire and nurture my students' passions and also encourage them to dream big through my story of becoming an entrepreneur (which I never thought would be me but was a huge risk), running my own business and developing my own educational technology blog.
-Elle
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