Tonight’s #UTEdchat starts in exactly one hour. Be there or be square! Unless you’re an octagon. Then be an octagon. Oh, just come. We miss you! #weirded
#WeirdEd Chris from Brooklyn and suddenly I'm thinking of bands that never got to have a third album
(Though I read the blog so I *know* the answer ...)
#WeirdEd I'm a total fail at the intro. I love music but don't know album names. I think the last time I bought a whole album was at least 10 years ago. BTW - I teach 3rd grade.
Glad I'm on Lake Superior with barely any Googles 😝 but I miss #WeirdEd! RT @TheWeirdTeacher: #WeirdEd Before we start, please introduce yourself and tell us what band's third album is their best album.
My name is Rebecca, I teach English and other book related things in the Dominican Republic, and I really don't think about musicians in terms of albums because my tastes are outdated #WeirdEd
A1. It took a good 3-4 years at my last site. Then I moved from HS to kinder and basically started over. So im still working on figuring it out. Beginning year 3. #WeirdEd
#WeirdEd A1 I think I've found many voices, or maybe other people's. Sometimes I think I'm Charlie McCarthy and others Mortimer Snerd.
But seriously, my voice is still changing.
#WeirdEd I'm gonna go ahead and say that the album is the way music should be consumed if not live. Bands should write ten god songs that sound good as a whole.
A1 I confess I didn't do my homework, so I don't know exactly what Doug means by "teacher voice", but it definitely wasn't before year 3 of teaching. #WeirdEd
When I think of my voice as a teacher, I guess I think about being my authentic self in my practice of teaching. I guess I think of as analogous to voice in writing; there's something about the way that you do it that makes it clearly you and no one else. #WeirdEd
#WeirdEd By the way, my voice tonight is being brought to you courtesy of Google's speech recognition engine, so you can blame any crazy mistakes on auto carrot.
#WeirdEd a1 teaching in Taiwan efl. Nine months
Teaching embedded ESL in KCK. Never. I was note of a para working with low students. Now we're ESL
Working with ebd kids. With para I had no realationship never. Felt I was fighting all year. With new mind reading para three week
#WeirdEd I think about it in much the same way, even down to connecting it to writing. When do you stop sounding like someone else and are comfortable in your own skin.
A2: I felt like I wasn’t “putting on my teacher costume” anymore. I felt it was just me doing me stuff to help kids learn what they needed to learn. #WeirdEd
A1 Sorry I am late. I had to do the homework. I think I found my voice about 8 years ago (out of 18). But I lose touch with it sometimes. The doubt creeps back in on occasion. #weirded
#WeirdEd A2 I think I knew I had found my voice when I knew the reason no one else could teach my class was not because they didn't know how but because my lessons were coming from my knowledge and experience and practices and not off the set curriculum
#WeirdEd Q3 Connecting the first two questions to the blog- Do you think social media could be hurting/slowing the development of unique voices in education? Or am I an old man shouting at clouds?
#WeirdEd *pokes head into room. Small crowd but those sounds are jamming* I’m Parker and I forget album numbers, but I really like Bush’s Sixteen Stone and will imagine it’s their third album.
All those years of vocal music training have *definitely* saved my physical teacher voice. We had a teacher here who used a personal amplifier, with a belt speaker and Britney mic. I miss Ann Arbor schools with their in-class mic, PA, and FM receivers. #WeirdEd
#WeirdEd I've had the chance to use those mics, and I get it if you've got kids who need hearing help, but otherwise I'm plenty loud and I don't think they'd work in my room
A2: I started having lessons that I felt were really my own, not carbon copies of something I saw someone else teach or how I imagined someone else would teach it. And I could explain why I did things more clearly #WeirdEd
Traded my teacher costume for an apron and never looked back, except I wear the costume under the apron and I keep making the apron bigger and heavier, but I'm not hiding #weirded
#WeirdEd A3 I think it helped me, because it reassured me that I wasn't alone or crazy in seeing the things in my schools that no one else seemed to see. And with that reassurance, I can now help other Ts in my building find their own way.
Breanne Kanak k12 teacher dragon artbeast from the north woods of Wisconsin. I would say Sufjan Stevens 3rd album, Michigan, stands out for me as one of the greats. #WeirdEd
A1: ummmm I believe i am starting to find my voice maybe kinda. I am certainly starting to have a particular personality in my teaching modes (k12 means ALL the modes) but I am always genuine with my kids #WeirdEd
A3: I think social media puts a lot of pressure on some Ts to act or teach a certain way and, in some ways, stunts creativity and encourages insecurity. This applies to tech (tools), media content, etc. #WeirdEd
A3 I dont find the fluffy quotes much help. Or the obvious stuff. Please don't tell me what I already know. Share an experience that I may learn from. I already know kids deserve it. (Don't get me wrong. They mean well. ) #weirded
A3. Eh, I think the people who will need to follow will find someone to follow on or off social media. The people who don’t want that...won’t. #WeirdEd
A1: I have been teaching in some capacity for five+ years. Everything from camp craft queen to managing high school workers to coteaching and beyond #WeirdEd
#WeirdEd A3 I feel there’s a lot of “sameness” lately and that teacher twitter isn’t what it was 3 years ago. It used to be so good. Did it sellout? I dunno. 🤷♂️
#WeirdEd A3 Social media is an interesting case. It exposes Ts to others, showing that hey, this dude @TheWeirdTeacher likes the same geeky stuff I do, it's validating.... BUT at the same time....seeing the work of other Ts exacerbates feelings of failures one may experience
#WeirdEd A3 This is where we get stuff such as that Impostor Syndrome, ideas of emulating, copying what we see as successful Ts and their voices, in other words, as @TheWeirdTeacher blog said, we don't get to discover our own T Voices, but could be due to feeling inadequate
Q3: Good question. But I am really enjoying hearing all of the unique teaching voices on social media. They inspire me. It must be overwhelming as a new teacher, though.
#WeirdEd
A3a: society today values instant gratification and compliant individualism (be “different”, but in ways that aren’t outside the norm) and both of those things make it hard for teachers to be themselves #WeirdEd
#WeirdEd A3 This is where we get stuff such as that Impostor Syndrome, ideas of emulating, copying what we see as successful Ts and their voices, in other words, as @TheWeirdTeacher blog said, we don't get to discover our own T Voices, but could be due to feeling inadequate
#WeirdEd A3 I also feel there is just so much politics cluttering my timeline from teachers that the good stuff isn’t getting through. I’ve had to unfollow teachers because most of their stuff is political rather than “what can I directly do to help my kids today?”
I mean, to be completely honest and frank, I love all you Ts who I follow/follow me, but I just feel like I stand next to freaking GIANTS. How can I match to that? #WeirdEd
#WeirdEd A3 This is where we get stuff such as that Impostor Syndrome, ideas of emulating, copying what we see as successful Ts and their voices, in other words, as @TheWeirdTeacher blog said, we don't get to discover our own T Voices, but could be due to feeling inadequate
A3b: also the consumer model of education (Ss/Ps as customers where the customer is always right) makes it a lot harder to be anything other than vanilla #WeirdEd
A3 I think it could be hurtful because of the inauthenticity. All social media is a curated persona, but add to that the pressure from higher ups to treat personal social media as company PR and you’re seeing quite a distortion. #WeirdEd
#WeirdEd A3 ext.: I see what some people do and I am all that is so not me but I wonder if that is me being true to myself or closeminded. It can be overwhelming to think about trying everything you see and then make it your own. You lose your sanity some days.
A2: I started to feel my teacher voice carrying my students through really hard projects/processes. My experience was that kids liked being in my room because I believed in their efforts and valued them. Make the kids your end goal, not the grade. #WeirdEd
Same. I feel guilty blogging because I haven’t taught as long or gotten as much advanced education as other teachers. Easier to hide in the shadows #WeirdEd
#WeirdEd Q4 For you personally, when you run into a problem in class (how do I make this lesson interesting/what to do with this story/what book next/etc) do you ask twitter FIRST, go to teachers in your building, or spend time alone on it? How long before you'd ask twitter?
Q3: jumping in late. Social media does both. I see marginalized voices being amplified, and also bandwagons being jumped on. It's up to us to decide the paths we take. #WeirdEd
A3: speaking as a still green full time teacher in my field... twitter can be a very intimidating place for teachers. It’s great to share ideas, but the minute I have something being shoved down my throat I am out. Many of my peers in college felt this way too. #WeirdEd
I feel like so many of my fails are mundane, though. Like...the cake fell, but the kitchen didn’t explode and I put frosting on it and ate it anyway. Not exactly...newsworthy? #weirded
You can mute words instead of accounts if you like someone's teacher stuff but not their politics.
You can also turn off retweets for a particular user. I do that often. #WeirdEd
A3: one thing I do love about teachers on Twitter is all the great stories that come from our different classrooms— good and not so good. I know I am always ready to share the insane things my kids say/do for my own comedic relief and sanity #WeirdEd
My feed indeed! #WeirdEd I just feel my feed/life is better when I have positive stuff coming in. I don’t like angry twitter. It’s like the 5th Harry Potter movie “The Year Harry went Emo” which is a song by wizard rock band Peeved and is thusly relevant.
A4 I usually fly solo. Don't ask Twitter. Sometimes I ask the T next door what he thinks. The good things I see on social media, I file away for future use. #weirded
#WeirdEd I pick at a problem alone for a long time, often bc I like the process of taking ideas apart and putting them together. Then to my closest partner in crime at school, or to twitter if he oisn't around
#WeirdEd A4 I tend to do it all at the same time. I need as much feedback as possible, though, teachers in the building first. I don't have much trust in myself, which kinda sucks, but whatever. Teachers in the building/Team members would see the most context...
A4: depends on the type of problem and whether I really need help or to vent. I do try to wait until the emotional charge of the situation wears off so I can present the issue rationally #WeirdEd
A4: 1st step is to bounce my issue off of a few trusted folks in the building. However, because I’m a singleton, my best bet is often to reach out to my state-specific Theatre Teachers FB page. I’m also part a national page. I’ve never used Twitter for trouble-shooting. #weirded
#WeirdEd These are the kinds of answers I like, bc they point out the question contained an absolute in the assumption and that doesn't work in teaching
A4: depends on the type of problem and whether I really need help or to vent. I do try to wait until the emotional charge of the situation wears off so I can present the issue rationally #WeirdEd
A4. One reason I don’t ask Twitter is because none of you all know my students.
OH! I did ask an accessibility question about chrome books and got suggestions that won’t work and crickets. #WeirdEd
A4: If i am spending time alone it is because I have somehow miraculously found a prep time! Also, I am a department of 1 so I reach out to my PLC or Twitter for ideas and approaches to a media/subject/connection #WeirdEd
I’m going into year 6 and voice is refined, but I felt like I had it early on. I also didn’t start teaching until mid 30’s, so I had years of other experience under my belt. And had been fired multiple times for voice. 😂 #WeirdEd
#WeirdEd I think crickets happens more than we say when we sell twitter. It's hard to get responses sometimes. That or you get shot down and mocked openly by the person you're asking. That's a thoughtleader thing to do though
#WeirdEd Anyway, @TheWeirdTeacher rocks because he managed to pull me in with another question. But, I'm gonna go and get some comfort food now, somehow. I dunno. XD G'night everyone!
I think teaching has to be emotional - but sometimes the emotions aren’t productive in a given situation and it’s best to wait for calm before acting #WeirdEd
#WeirdEd A4 I try to figure things out. Haven’t gone to twitter in a while. I really need to get back into edu twitter. Leaving the high school put me in a weird funk I’ve yet to recover from.
#WeirdEd Depends on what I'm looking for, usually if I need book suggestions for class library or read aloud or whatever, I get something. If, I need stuff like "Where can I get project ideas, other instruction materials," etc., I don't get anything from the twitter void
A4: (jumping in way late here) I tend to let things marinate first and figure it out on my own, next my team. I never really "ask Twitter," at least not directly. I will certainly learn from what I read on Twitter and use ideas that I find that speak to me though! #WeirdEd
A4: Students first, I teach 8th grade so ask them what they felt wasn’t working. Then a trusted colleague. I haven’t asked twitter yet, but that’s a great idea. #WeirdEd
Q4: generally spend some time inside my own head with the problem, then call in some trusted cronies to make sure there still seems to be some method in my madness. Never thought of going to Twitter to solve a problem. #WeirdEd
I remember having absolutely no idea where to even start looking for answers, but I suspected there wasn't exactly a Google Accessibility Ambassador ready to jump on it because, um, people suck or something #WeirdEd
A4: I spend time alone & ask my noneducator schoolphobic hubs: "does this make sense?"
He is brutally honest at times, e.g."too wordy" & gives feedback.
Can be really helpful to ask people who are NOT already practice-minded & learn differently than you.
Then bldg Ts. #WeirdEd
A3: I think districts put a lot of pressure on new teachers to conform, I think SM offers great perspectives, IF you’re looking in the right place. #WeirdEd
A5: like.. physical amplification? HAHA kidding.. I think that my own amplification has been putting out a monthly newsletter from my classroom. Sharing what students are working on and being challenged with - gives a voice to my curriculum and practice. #WeirdEd
@TheWeirdTeacher#WeirdEd A5 Heck yes they do! Ts are often times stifled. Taught to just "be thankful you have a job" when in fact we should be thanked for choosing to do this noble career. Ts need to be the loudest advocates out there for Ss and for themselves. Speak up!
A5: *some* teacher ideas and conversations need amplifying. I think if we focus on “voice” it’s too easy to make it all about teachers being on brand and Pinterest perfect - the “big name” teachers. Focus on good ideas no matter who they come from. #WeirdEd
A5. Yes. By each other, and in the spirit of “hey, check out this that I’m going to incorporate into my practice and you might want to, also!”
#WeirdEd
#WeirdEd A5 I think there needs to be more silence in the conversation. Certain People need to step away from the mic so others can hear themselves think, and maybe then speak. (she said, thinking guiltily of her 40K tweets)
#WeirdEd Since switching from secondary to elementary ed, I’m in uni doing new stuff. Can I shout gear for homework help? Mostly lesson plans. (I see the light at the end of the tunnel)
#WeirdEd HOLY CRAP I'VE TAUGHT FIFTH GRADE FOR THREE YEARS AND NOT ONCE DID I LOOK AT MY CLASS AND SAY "THESE GO TO 11" WHEN TALKING ABOUT THEIR AGES IM THE WOOOOORST
#WeirdEd I don't mind being brazen and say, A5 If you're non-white T, hell yes TOC voices need amplifying, esp. new ToCs. If you're LGBTQ+ and you're teaching? Hells yes. We don't need the same folks saying the same stuff over and over.
Also damn it @TheWeirdTeacher did it again
A5- ( sorry so late here ) I live in NJ so yes - we're 1 of the many states where we've been bullied. On a smaller scale it depends on the district. Twitter has broken the bubble where we can see beyond our districts- there's some that let their Ts be heard- others not #WeirdEd
#WeirdEd A5 YES!!! Especially when it comes to peer bullying. If T voices were actually heard, the unions would get off their...hands and stop these bullies. They aren’t hearing victims. They aren’t hearing the bullies either.
A5: This year I have changed k12 districts to the school where I student taught... I am so eager to see what the kids can teach me and how I can grow. My voice is amplified by the passion I have for my subject and sharing it with others. Often. Even on low days. #WeirdEd
#WeirdEd I don't mind being brazen and say, A5 If you're non-white T, hell yes TOC voices need amplifying, esp. new ToCs. If you're LGBTQ+ and you're teaching? Hells yes. We don't need the same folks saying the same stuff over and over.
Also damn it @TheWeirdTeacher did it again
#WeirdEd Ok ok ok ok- Follow up! Do those voices need Amplifying, or do they need the other voices to quiet down? Like, isn't "I'm amplifying their voices" a step away from "you're welcome. Here to help."
#WeirdEd I don't mind being brazen and say, A5 If you're non-white T, hell yes TOC voices need amplifying, esp. new ToCs. If you're LGBTQ+ and you're teaching? Hells yes. We don't need the same folks saying the same stuff over and over.
Also damn it @TheWeirdTeacher did it again
Absolutely, I did a lot of dumb stuff my 1st yr teaching because of trying to clear my credential and please the right people. I questioned.. a lot, and almost didn’t clear. On social media, I was lucky enough to get suggestions to you and #EduColor that helped me grow. #WeirdEd
Certainly not the site as a whole. Nowhere online is safe all the time. But I think there are safe relationships over Twitter. I mostly only chat in #WeirdEd because it's a safe no-BS zone.
#WeirdEd really good distinction. I don't really know, it's probably more of, "Other voices need to quiet down," But amplifying can also be seen as "All right! Everyone shut up!" before stepping away and let other voices speak this time. Know what I mean? I hope? Rambly today...
Well we had our former Gov Christie calling us many degrading names in the media for years, besides the point he messed with our health care and all that awful stuff #weirdEd
Q5: I think it's more about who needs to listen more. Ts need to listen more to their students. Admin needs to listen to Ts more. SO it really depends on the situation. Wait... no... Everyone needs to listen to Ts more. #WeirdEd
#WeirdEd No, that makes sense. bc I don't want to sound like "This person can't speak for herself so I'm going to help" but at the same time I do want to " Oy! Dig this!"
Maybe the difference is in the intent?
