The Day Before The First Day of School

I am nervous, anxious, petrified, and hesitant. Tomorrow will be a new day of opportunity and potential. The kids I will meet tomorrow I do not currently know. The students of last year have matriculated to new teachers and more difficult curriculum. I'm obligated to make my new students feel comfortable around me and to respect my classroom.

This year I am organizing my classroom as a newspaper—The Wilson Tribune. Journalism was my first major at Tennessee State University, and I enjoyed writing and reporting as a part of The Meter during my undergraduate years. With my writing experience across academia to fiction, I hope my love for writing and reading rubs off to all of my students.

Blogging is a skill set that I want my 7th graders to know and appreciate. Blogging combines debate, research, writing, reading, and technology. Using Blogger was an easy choice for my classroom blog and digital newsletter. My goal is to provide authentic work tasks that the public can view, assess, and critique. Publishing anything pushes one outside of his or her comfort zone. That's where real learning occurs—outside of the comfort zone.

How I Got Started

Since 2008, I have worked in the field of education. I started as a teaching assistant at Glencliff High School in Nashville, Tennessee shortly after earning my B.S. in social sciences from Tennessee State University and while enrolled in MTSU in an Educational Leadership graduate degree program. Somewhere along the way, I stumbled into education. After spending a semester at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee (simultaneously while at MTSU), I applied for Teach for America. I was declined. That rejection motivated me to find another avenue into teaching. I learned and applied to The New Teacher Project. I had opportunities in Milwaukee (my hometown), Chicago, Washington D.C, and New Orleans. I decided to move to Memphis; I've been here ever since. In 2011, I was diagnosed with chronic headache disorder. This forced me to resign my teaching position. After a brief stint back in banking, a carpet cleaning company, and Apple, I found my way back to my calling.

Currently, I am a middle school language arts teacher; I love my role. I love the affect that my mind and knowledge has on the mind and knowledge of my students. My work has purpose; it matters a lot. This is the blessing that I asked God for. I asked for him to reveal my purpose and to allow me to do meaningful work. Additionally, after dropping out of a MBA program in Union University, I nearly finished a master's degree program in Professional and Technical Communication from the University of Wisconsin-Stout. This program lead me to instructional design as I was admitted to the University of Memphis' doctorate program in instructional design and technology. This program has been difficult, but I am enjoying the challenge along with teaching middle school English.

The purpose of this blog is to reflect what happens in my classroom and doctorate program. I need to reflect what I see, read, hear, and think. I need to reflect on how effective my lesson plans are. I believe through reflection, I can become a better educator. And that should be the goal for all educators—to become better. The more we improve as educational leaders, the better our students will improve. Education does not have a one-size-fits-all strategy or best practice. This is no program you can buy as an educator that will make you highly effective in the classroom. It takes strong, fair, and supportive parents and administrators. It takes children willing to learn and excited about becoming better. It takes money, grants, long hours, Youtube videos, BrainPOP, etc. The infinite amount of resources it takes every day, every week, and every semester to be effective grows.