Purpose and Intent

Summer is officially over and students will be coming back to school in just a couple of short hours. There is a lot of change happening this year and I am very excited for all of the opportunities that await. I quickly wanted to give a little background for anyone that doesn't know me and my ambitions, as well as give a quick little glimpse of where my head is at, so here goes nothing.

This will be my fifth year teaching, so I am still very much a newbie. I do not claim to have all of the answers, but the little experience I have has already taught me a lot. I spent my first couple of years teaching 5th grade in an inclusion classroom, where I was the general education teacher. I learned a lot from the wonderful co-teachers that I worked with. I then spent the last couple years on the other end, co-teaching in a 3rd grade classroom where I was the special education teacher. This year, I will be teaching a 2nd grade self-contained classroom with students whose needs vary. However, in my eyes, they are all just children learning about the world that surrounds them. My job as a teacher has always been to meet students where they are at and guide them through the next phase of their journey.

So that is where I am currently at in the classroom. Let's talk about this blog and my plans for this year. I started blogging in January. I had no idea what I was going to blog about, but felt compelled to get my ideas out there. If nothing else, this blog has helped me journal what is on my mind. I plan on experimenting with this a little bit further and really opening the doors to my classroom to let others see what goes on in there. So, first and foremost, this blog will document what is sure to be a fun, experimental school year. I have some cool technologies already set up and running and can't wait to show some pictures and videos.

My second, and more important intention is to focus on new educators. If you read some of my old posts, many are geared toward encouraging all educators to not hold back their talents. However, I think this message is especially important to new educators. I know there are teachers that are afraid of being observed by administrators and getting critical observations that might impact securing tenure. So they play it safe and have a "canned" lesson just in case an administrator walks in unannounced. I know because I have been there. Scrambling over every last detail to make sure nothing goes wrong. I have learned that this isn't teaching. I know I still need to hear messages of encouragement, to know that I am on the right path. So, there are surely others that walk on eggshells everyday. This blog is for them, to know that it's okay to screw up. In fact, your students need to see those screw ups.

Lastly, my intent is to share. We live in an amazing era where so much is open sourced and shared freely. I want to share my ideas and content for others to piggyback and run with. Some ideas will be really cool. Others might be terrible. I hope that this will be a place where we can all share and grow together. The rising tide lifts all boats. With that being said, I would like to share with you the letter that I sent home with students today on the first day of school. I think it sums up where my head is at and gives an idea of the things to come.

Also, here are a few pictures of our first day of school. Today, we drew on giant pieces of butcher block all over our desks. We also watched the Class Dojo series on Growth Mindset and talked about the type of thinking that we are going to develop this year. Finally, we watched Cain's Arcade and talked about the cool things that we want to build out of cardboard. I ordered a MakeDo Cardboard Construction Kit and hope to have some fun with it.

This is just the first day of school. We are just getting started. I hope you'll follow along on this journey, borrow some of the ideas, and not be afraid to give feedback. You'll often find that the last line of my blogs is "I'm just spitballing here, hoping something sticks." Feel free to add your own spitballs. The more we shoot, the better the chances are that some will stick.

Thanks.