Amber said I did it wrong...Statement of Inquiry part 2

Statement of Inquiry

Where have you been?

Career wise, I was in the private tutoring world for 10 years. #expensive I had a crazy two years of job searching, substitute teaching, assistant teaching, student teaching, and finally part-time actual teaching. Then, I MADE IT! I was a teacher! I have been teaching for 3 years, all of them at Wakefield High School in Arlington, VA. At the end of my first year, I got tricked into teaching Journalism....then I found my calling. #JournalismisLIFE

What do you know already?

I know that I have no idea what I am doing. It is silly that they leave me alone in a classroom with 158 students. I hope they know what they are doing, but I don't think they know either. I think that is the big secret of teaching, no matter how many years you have been doing it, you really don't know what you are doing. Students change, philosophies change, policies change; all you can do is try to have fun during this wild ride.

THIS IS THE PART I DID WRONG!
Where are you going?
What is next for me is reflection. I have never reflected so much in my freaking life.

I am going to be a driving force on the "Every student. Every year." Committee. Driving Force. 
I am going to start to plant the seeds of a productive student run writing center for the 2016-2017 school year. Kids need help in 2015-2016, but they already have schedules, etc. So, I can't get the full picture rolling until the next school year. I am okay with that. I think that will actually help in the long run. I will be able to manage it. People will see me as the one to go to for writing center ideas and inquires (God, help me.) this year, so they can help the right students become part of the Writing Center movement. 

I think I am going to focus on making the school news site even more accurate, relevant, and timely.  
I am also going to plan my English 10 units NOW for the year. I am going to try to work in a lot of what I learned at NVWP. That way I can also focus on getting work back to students in a 48 hour window, with essays back in a 96 hour window. I gotta keep current with grading to keep feedback relevant and timely, or there is no hope of them reading it.

I didn't realize that being in the same room with 16 other teachers, all of which have been teaching longer than me, would help me get some basic teaching methods down. Don't give them a list of characteristics of a certain genre, give them a mentor text and have them figure it out. Have them help create the rubric. HOLY FRICKING CRAP! Have them grade it? What? I don't know...I guess it does make sense! Use a table of contents with my multi genre research papers. Write FOR MYSELF so that I remember what it is like to have to write on command. GIVE MORE STUDENT CHOICE! Make them more responsible. They work harder. They learn more. Wooh! #foodforthought

(What I previously wrote...#stillTRUE)
Nowhere. You are going to have to pry my cold, lifeless body out of my teacher chair, put me on a stretcher, and wheel me out of the classroom. It took me FOREVER to become an actual teacher...beyond that two years of crazy...I have been trying to be a teacher since I was a year out of college. I see myself running the school newspaper, running a writing center (THANKS, AMBER!), and running the TV Studio at Wakefield until I die. #lovinlife

What questions still linger?

How do I know that what I am doing is right? That it affects my students in a positive way? It teaches them what they need to survive life? How will I know? What can I do to become a better teacher for my students?

What can I do to help my school be a better school? What can I do to unite the English department so we can have more fun and feel like a unit not a competition?

Where do you want to be?

I want to be where I am. I want to stay there. I want to become more of a leader. I think because of my personality, some people think I am all flash and no bang. I am also grammatically incorrect at times, so that is not a good look for an English teacher. That can make people think I have a lower intelligence level than I actually do. #judgement I think becoming more of an unofficial leader (not a real administrator...I don't want THAT job.)

I guess...where I want to be in 5 years is Newspaper Adviser for The Chieftain for 2 classes and after school, running the Writing Center 4th and 5th period, and teaching one English class to keep current and in the department. I want to be where I am, but even better.