Changes are coming!

What I want to talk about today is what I need to change for the upcoming year. We all know about the 'New Year's Resolution' junk. Well I am not a believer in that, but I do think it is a great time to sit back and reflect on what you would like to do differently in the following year. Most everyone is going to be taking a peek at the diet/exercise fad in the following weeks, with me, I made the conversion to a healthier me last May and have done well. I have lost over 90 lbs., also ran in 4 5k's and can now run the entire thing without stopping. (In May I could barely run 1 minute without taking a break). So I am not going into the new year with a new diet or anything like that. What I am going to change is things in my classroom. So here is my list of things I want to change.

1. Organization: I have a problem with this. I will have everything organized and in its place. After about two hours in the classroom it looks like a paper bomb went off and strewn paper all over the place. I will get it cleaned up by the end of the day (at least have it in piles), then the next day it happens all over again. I worked with a teacher a few years ago and no matter what time you went into her room it was imaculate. Everything had a place and it was in its place. I don't know how she did it, but I will find out how by the time I retire.

2. Communicate with Parents: I don't do this enough (if at all). But I vow to change that this semester. I hope to communicate with each one of my students parents by the end of the semester for either something they are doing good or poorly with. This is going to be hard, because I am not a phone person, I would rather not talk on the phone if I had the choice. But it's not about me, it's about the kids.

3. More projects: My creativity level is not where it should be, and so I steal a lot of ideas from teachers. And I plan to do more stealing in the following months, because I need to get these kids doing projects and not just more homework. They need to see where this stuff is used in everyday life. So teachers out there, beware I coming to steal your ideas.

4. More problem solving: I am not a big problem solving person, but I know it needs to be one of the core things that we teach. I don't like them and I know the kids don't like them, but ready or not kids, here they come. I need to integrate more 'real world' challenges to them in the hopes of allievating that question of 'When are we ever going to use this'

5. To not fail anyone: This one is hard, because I believe that if a kid doesn't do any work they deserve to get a failing grade. But my problem is that I don't do enough to push that kid to do his homework. At our school we have a ton of apathy and I am going to change the ways in which I approach these kids. I will push them until they either do their homework or it's the end of the semester. I am not going to pass everyone, only if they deserve it, but I will work harder at getting these kids to do their work.

6. I will not complain (as much): I have had the tendency to complain about things. Well now is the time where that complaining is going to stop (slow down) and I will help change the things I can change.

7. Read more: I love to read, it's just that I don't have a whole lot of time to read. But talking with one of my tweeps (@mathheadinc) who read my blog and suggested I read a book called Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard (http://t.co/kGXtG9oC). So I went to the library yesterday and borrowed it. I am now reading it and it seems to be pretty good. Thank you @mathheadinc. I vow to read more non-fiction books so if you have any great non-fiction books that you think I need to read (mostly about education) please let me know.

Thanks for reading. You can always follow me on twitter @mrlove314
Love^2

One pissed off teacher.

I am the pissed off teacher. Why? Well, it started last week when I copied an article about teacher effectiveness for the teachers in my high school, http://t.co/OxtXZ74o. I was in the workroom when a fellow teacher (a good buddy of mine) looked at the article, made a disgusted face and threw the article in the trashcan. I told him that I was the one that copied it and he pretty much said 'Oh well.' That just lit a fire under my ass and pissed me off. How can a person teaching these kids not care about being an effective teacher?

Now let me admit that I am not one of those teachers that believes they are better at teaching than everyone else, because, trust me, there are many things I need to work on in the classroom (I will get to that in a later post). I believe that we need to grow as an educators. To do that we must continue to learn and get better as time goes on. Teaching is not static, it is ever changing, and we must continue to grow and learn. Why don't other teachers see that? Are they there just for the paycheck? What can we do to change the mindset of those teachers? Or are they just a lost cause?

Why did this piss me off so much, because teaching is my life, my passion, my love. Others that don't view education the same way just tick me off. I know most educators care about what they do and how they do it, while others justwant a paycheck. Those people need to get out of education as quickly as they can. Just leave, forget the paycheck and do something thay you enjoy.

Thanks for listen to me rant and rave.
Hope you have a great break. Me I can't wait till next Wednesday when I get to see my students again.
Mr. Love

My first blog post.

This is my fourteenth year teaching high school math and I believe that this is the first year that my passion for teaching has really hit home. I absolutely love teaching, doesn't really matter what I am teaching as long as I am standing up in front of those kids, and they are learning. I don't know why all of the sudden I have been more passionate about teaching, maybe it's the environment I am now in, or just that I finally realized that teaching is what I should be doing. I have really started using Twitter this year and have a wonderful experience with my fellow tweeps. I have had some great chats on twitter that has, I believe, helped me become what I am today. Thank you Tweeps! I am not for sure what I am going to use this blog for but in due time hopefully it will come to me.