Reflections on an Unprecedented School Year

 I'm tired, y'all.

We (educators) always joke about how there's "regular person tired," and then there's "teacher tired" and the two are basically opposite ends of a spectrum. But those of us in education now--especially those of us who have anything to do with providing technology support or other instructional support--we now know that "teacher tired" wasn't the furthest extreme on that spectrum. It was more like the middle. We've figured out that beyond that is "remote teacher tired" and then even further is "teaching in the midst of a pandemic tired" and God help us if the spectrum goes further, because there are days when I just don't know how much more I have to give this career of mine.

I love my job. I love being an educator, and I love even more being someone who supports educators and helps usher them into a place of confidence with technology integration. I love that I can open a teacher's eyes to incredible tools that take their already amazing instruction to new heights of engagement. 

But that's not what my job looks like right now.

Right now, my job is primarily overseeing all of the devices we've received and checked out to our students. I am handling connectivity issues, creating accounts for new students, assembling carts for iPads and Chromebooks so our face-to-face teachers can store devices in their classrooms, submitting work orders for the inevitable student device repairs, taking calls from stressed-out parents who are just trying to do their best to support their children's learning during this time unlike anything we've ever experienced before...and then there's the stuff that is normally part of my job. Stuff like managing our school's website, collecting annual paperwork regarding photo permission, acceptable use policies, making sure teachers all have access to the resources we provide, managing my technology budget, somehow finding time to provide targeted professional development to my teachers, helping to figure out what Battle of the Books and LEGO League look like in the midst of a pandemic, and--oh, right--occasionally teaching a class or two.

Are you tired with me, yet? 

I am SO blessed to have an incredible assistant on board with me this year who is taking care of teaching my classes and planning awesome content for the kiddos. She also keeps me honest and helps me delegate things to her so that my plate isn't quite so full all of the time. 

But the truth of the matter is, in this unprecedented school year--in this unprecedented era (for folks of my generation, at least)--I am tired. I'm tired all the time. I'm doing what I can to try and get good sleep because LORD KNOWS this is a year where being healthy is so much more important than ever before. But I'm exhausted. Between balancing an ever-growing list of expectations (from folks who aren't the ones on the front lines with us), dealing with apathy/skepticism from folks who think the pandemic is overblown, and just trying to be a functional human person--I'm just so tired.

I'm definitely a realist, but I'm a realist who wants to be an optimist, so I have to believe this too shall pass. I have to believe that now is not what will always be, even if it's all I can see when I try to peek down the road and see what's coming. I have to believe that despite humanity showing us the worst of us over the last 8 months or so, the best of us are still out there. We're still striving to move forward in the hope that better days lie ahead--and together, we'll get there. 

In the meantime, I'm counting on the good in us and plenty of coffee to get me through.

Year 12: Let's Set Some Goals

Summer comes and goes faster and faster each year, you know? It's astonishing.

But here I am, about to embark upon my 12th year of teaching and my 7th year as an Instructional Technology Facilitator. This year, as I previously mentioned, I'll be navigating an A/B schedule. I'm thrilled to continue to have some flexibility in my daily schedule, and I'm also excited to be getting back into working with the students in the lab.

Tomorrow is our first official work day, and I'm excited to see my coworkers and get prepped for another awesome year. It's going to be busy and chaotic but I know that it's going to be great, too.

This school year, I have a few goals I'm hoping to accomplish or make progress on.

1. Maximize productivity during my flex time. When I'm not teaching, I really want to be pushing into classrooms or working on PD or doing things that are super constructive and helpful. This year I'll have to budget that time a little more cautiously since there will be less of it, but I want to make sure that I'm getting the most I possibly can out of my flexible schedule times.

2. Innovate more with regards to my lessons in the lab. I have a set of resources and activities that evolves slightly from year to year, but I'd love to get some more innovation into my time with students in the lab. I want to take advantage of the resources we have and plan lessons that push me to think more creatively.

3. Expand my professional online presence using Twitter and also things like this blog. I want to connect more and find online communities I can plug into for inspiration, and I hope to be able to provide some insight and inspiration for others who might connect with me, too. (By the way, you can find me on Twitter @EdTechJunkie509! Please give me a follow if you don't already!)

I think those are some pretty decent goals going into the 2019-2020 school year, and I'm honestly hoping to be more present and communicative about my progress with them. What goals are you setting for this coming school year? What do you hope to achieve?

Setting goals and being reflective is so critical to our professional development, and if you haven't already tried this exercise of naming a few goals you have for the school year to come, I encourage you to do so!

I'm off to enjoy my last weeknight evening before work days commence tomorrow--good luck, and I'm sure we'll talk more soon!

-Marlee
 

#FutureReady Instruction & Understanding What Drives Us

(We're going to pretend like it hasn't actually been more than 2 years since I started this blog, k? You with me? Good. Let's continue.)

One of my favorite ways to stay in the loop with new content that relates to the field of Instructional Technology (or Ed Tech) and even just education in general is to subscribe to "professional" publications whenever I can.  The two big ones that I turn to most often are EdTech Magazine and Tech & Learning, both of which offer a physical magazine and an online component.  What I love even more about both of these resources is that they're free!  One thing I hope to do roughly once a week (maybe more, but let's not get ahead of ourselves) is to share some of the resources/articles/etc that I came across that I found worth sharing.  Today I'll be sharing a couple of posts that I came across in an eNewsletter that Tech & Learning sends out.

First up, let's talk about getting #FutureReady in our classrooms.  This short and sweet post from a blog called Recharge Learning touches on the concept of 21st Century Skills, which is a buzz-phrase that's been echoing in the heads of educators for what feels like forever.  The way that this blog post breaks down the concept of what it calls "Future Ready" classrooms is through what they describe as "The 4 C's," which looks like this:

I'm always a fan of simplified strategies that aren't overly or unnecessarily complex, and I like the way it's broken down in Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking, and Creativity here.  These are easy to understand concepts.  For more information and strategies in implementing this model, check out this awesome Google Doc that's full of links for you to explore.  Kudos to @WickedEdTech for creating such an excellent resource!

The other article I'd like to mention today comes from actual Principal and speaker/author George Couros.  I came across it on the site Connected Principals, and it's called "Child-Driven and Data-Driven; Can you be both?"  In it, Couros explores the conflicting concepts of being child-driven versus being data-driven, which is most definitely a familiar conflict experienced by all educators.  We want to encourage our children to reach their fullest potential, and to honor whatever that may be, but we also feel pressure from all sides to achieve a certain level of success on tests, and sometimes the push to hit those particular goals comes at the cost of staying centered on our students.  My favorite quote from the article was this:

"...when we do things to validate the adults that hurt kids, our focus is on the wrong place."

Talk about a gut punch.  I encourage you to take a look at the full article and give it some consideration.

So that's going to be it for this post.  If you take a look at either resource mentioned, leave a comment below with your reactions, questions, comments, or concerns.  I invite anyone with a vested interest in our students' success (which is everybody, by the way) to be a part of this conversation.

Happy Hump Day, y'all.  See you back here again soon! (I promise.)