Skip to main content

Salty Ol' Vet

As promised, and now also feels long overdue (you know, seeing as how the last 16 posts came at you quick and dirty). Here is the first of several posts that take all of the EducatingMe write-ups that happened to on the trail and tie them to education, according to me. I will take it one post at a time and milk the Colorado Trail blogs for all they are worth. ;-) This one seem most fitting as I see everyone heading back to classes this week. Hang on tight and Grammer Nazis turn your heads there are some run on sentences here, but the rant required it.

In the post about Granola Ways - I had no clue what I didn't know. We were about to embark on an epic journey with wide eyes and starry visions of what the experience would be like. Days later we would find that reality would punch us in the face. But like I said, when I wrote the post we had no clue.

Do you remember when you graduated college with that crisp piece of paper in your hands (which you don't actually get for 3 more weeks) and all those ideas? Yeah, I know the full internship is supposed to prepare you too, but let's face it, we all know that's a load too. Well, crap, with all of the certified teachers now-a-days that skipped the teaching route degree...you know because OK will now take any and all willing to give it a whirl these days...ehm...#teachershortage.

Sidenote - Thank you to the non-traditional teachers for not only coming in and giving a stir to education, but also for the fact that class sizes are not 100:1. I do not want it to sound as if in an earlier paragraph I was diggin' on ya'll. Seriously, thank you.

I shan't digress...Remember, you set up the classroom a week or so before school and then rearrange the desks...and then do it again because something just doesn't flow about it. You hang a few posters on the wall. You thought you might have bought too many until you realize the school assigned you to a room that is sandwiched in by two 15 and 20 year teachers. It looks like my grandmothers house in their classrooms. You know the type, with a million posters of Garfield (before he was digital) saying that he's hungry for more knowledge. Rugs that look well worn but really make the room cozy. Of course there are about 8 bookshelves, filled to the gild with every book you ever read in school. You walk back to your classroom look around and think...I've got to get to Target.
But then you realize with a cart full of stuff that these new items will never look worn and welcoming in your room. So you go back to your classroom all depressed and unsure how this year is going to even get started on the right foot without looking like the new guy that you already are.



Am I close at all to how you felt? Can you even remember? Well, If you couldn't tell, this - a little bit resembles - in the faintest of ways is how one...ehm...might feel. You have no clue how to prepare. You have no clue what those kids will look like. You have not clue if you can actually teach a lesson that isn't all jacked up on NSU hormones, because the first set of lesson plans you turned in to your new principal were 5 pages long, because that is what you are used to - and then he asks that next time you turn in one page - for the whole week. WHAT?!?!?

The point is, Travis trained for over a year to ride that trail, much like we trained for four years to teach that class. We speculated that altitude would be tough...but that the Oklahoma heat and humidity had to count for something. We knew that we would be working at our jobs as we went along. We knew we would be documenting the whole way. We knew things would probably get tough. But we had no clue. There was no possible way to prepare. Just like there is no possible way to fully prepare for what standing in front of the class with 35 sets of eyes with minds behind them, all looking up at you waiting to be filled with knowledge and nobody around observing to make sure you aren't totally screwing everything up.

It's not the fault of the Universities. How do you play house without actually owning a house? How can you know what it's like to have a baby having only done some babysitting before? You cannot. What you can do, is keep your eyes open. Learn from the pros around you. Beg, borrow and steal the ideas while you are learning.  Then, when you are ready and comfortable, start making it yours. Attend PD's on your own time to hone in your skills before you retire. Follow the #oklaed on the Twitters and keep your chin up. You'll be a salty ol' vet soon.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

If I Were King...for whatever reason

I was asked where I work this week. It went something like this... "I work for Epic Charter School!" And then I get the..."oh, hm.! And then I am all - you dismissive cuss! I could teach you a few things too. Except I don't really say that, but I am forced to word vomit all over the guy telling him about my school and how it really is closer to his than he thinks. And damnit I am feeling on the defensive and I am good at what I do. I was asked to write an essay this week in one of my Grad classes. The topic was along the lines of Jason James prompting March 23rd, so I will share. Better late than never? If I were King of #Oklaed. Sorry it’s 667 words... I have a beef with public schooling. It is not something housed in your school building. It is housed in your heart and mind. I dislike greatly the competition between schools and districts. I am not talking about the Jenks v Union rivalries.  I abhor that there has to be a huge fight between types of ...

#SXSWedu Day #1 Ramblings

Alright, someone told me right before the opening keynote this morning that by the end of the day my mind would be absolutely blown. I was all like, "Yeah, ok, Ive been to conferences before" And he was all, "But you've never been to SXSWedu" And the I was all like, "Ok, we'll see" Ya'll, wow! This place is like Edcamp meets ISTE meets TED talks. The ideas. and then I get ideas. And then I think that the Ministry of Education would not approve of my ideas. So the opening keynote was Temple Grandin . I had never heard of her before today. She is #amazeballs people. She is a 68 yr old woman that is on the spectrum and also works with the beef industry and more...designing cattle runs to the processing plants. She speaks about her autism and how we should make these kiddos great at their one (or more) thing. Here is a link to her TED talk from 2010. I did not grab a video of her today, but you will see in this video why I instant...

Elevation is King - Guest Blog by Travis Barnes

We met up with the boys around 8PM at the end of the trail for Segment 6. It was an insanely emotional day for us, but  will tell my version of account another time. Let me introduce to you Travis Barnes, my husband and my kids hero. This is his account of the last three days.  The first three days of our Colorado Trail experience are behind us. It’s amazing what can happen in three days. We rolled into Breckenridge today behaving like we’d been gone for weeks, but time is relative as we now know miles are. That’s right, miles are relative. The 500 mile distance of this ride is not impressive. When we left for this trip we could ride 75 miles on the mountain bike with 27 lbs of gear with little problem, then do it again the next day. That being said, the past 3 days have been the hardest riding I have ever experienced in my life. On day two we took a bypass into a town and I was able to text Erin. I told her among other things that, “this is HARD.” Erin knows me better th...