S2 Blog 4

I have seen staff members texting during PD, asking questions or chiming in simply to gripe and with no intent to contribute to the discussion, refuse to cover during their prep because they feel they are above the systems, and one teacher dresses like she is going film the music video for Van Halen’s ‘Hot for Teacher’ video after school. I personally can be sure to conduct myself appropriately during PD, separate myself from the violators mentioned above, ensure appropriate dress at all school sponsored functions, and maintain professional relationships with students especially ones that point out they are 18 and graduate soon.

S2 Blog 3

I believe I am a professional with respect to execution and production. With respect to tact and a politically correct approach and communication, I could probably improve in this particular work environment (education). I produce and perform as expected with little to no supervision, however I am semi-abrasive and less tactful than I could be when communicating with peers and students. This is not to say that I am rude to anyone or that my content is inappropriate, I just present it in a real unfiltered manner and denounce political correctness along the way. I would say that this is what sets me apart from my peers. With respect to results, I do hold myself to a higher standard, I personally do not find much value in tip toeing around topics and being passive. I am well aware of the pros and cons of this, I just feel that people will find more value in my performance and production than they do of me being politically correct and in constant awareness of offending others when presenting my ideas. I think this approach has led to great relationships with my students as they know I call it like I see it and I’m not ‘fake like other teachers’. I could probably find other avenues of approach to be less abrasive when presenting my opinions.

S2 Blog 2

Did you experience bullying as a child either as a victim, witness, or as the bully?

I can say yes to all of the above. I grew up in a low income apartment complex outside of Dallas, there were several kids in the complex. As I reflect back, I feel as if we all had our spot in the food chain or were in a specific pecking order; this was decided usually by age, ability in sports, or possessions.

How did you survive that experience and what did you learn from it that is helping you now as teacher?

For the most part I feel like people are bullied because it was a way to be superior, get other’s attention, and make them laugh. For the most part, most of the bulling was beneficially in making us tougher, and taught us how to stand up for ourselves. It was when it was taken too far did it become detrimental to the bullied.

Since the age of about 17, I have made a commitment to step in whenever someone is being bullied and feel like they are actually being hurt by the situation and are unable to help themselves. Usually the situation de-escalates. Only twice has it led to me having to be involved in a physical altercation. One ended much better than the other, haha. In one of those two, a small kid was being beaten up by a much larger trained kid, over 50 people stood around watching it before I jumped in and stopped it. This just leads to my conclusion that most of our population are cowards with no integrity in these situations, which makes it much easier to stop the bullying as third party.

At some point when I was stationed in Japan and had a lot of time to self-reflect and find out who I was, I identified one person whom I felt as if I treated them very poorly with respect to bullying. I reached out to him and sent an apology, he read it but I never heard back from him. I still feel pretty crappy about it.

As for being bullied myself, I am a skinny white guy that didn’t grow up around many white people. I received quite a bit of bullying, but I really only feel as if two of the guys had intent to hurt me, or at least no regard for how they treated others. I have ran into both of them a couple time since those days as a kid, they have grown up and were nice. I still wouldn’t want to involve them in my life, but I harbor no hard feelings towards anyone. I think it is important to have your own self-confidence and discount the actions of other ignorant people.

S2 Blog 1

What are 3 goal to improve or initiate in Spring 2014? How can your cadre leader support you?

My 3 goals for the Spring 2014 semester are:

1.      To become a more efficient teacher with respect to time management outside of class, and designing instruction to be effective and subsequently decreasing the time in which it take to move through units.

2.      Build stronger relationships with students.

3.      Instill in the students a better idea of how exactly they can achieve their personal goals and become successful.

Cadre Leader can support my by providing any ideas for the above referenced goals, and/or be available to answer any questions or provide advice when asked.