Creative Ed Tech
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Templates
  • Game Shows
  • Listicles
  • Trainings

My "force myself to write and be creative" Blog

Episode V: The Classroom Strikes Back

7/17/2017

26 Comments

 
Picture
About two and a half years ago I was on a plane flying back from a trip to Germany composing a blog post about the next transition in my professional life. I had just accepted a position in my district in Rocklin as a Tech TOSA (teacher on special assignment), which meant I was about to say goodbye to my life as a history teacher (which I started in 1998). Before I began this new chapter in my life, I shared my thoughts in a blog.  Here is the original blog post.

Fast forward two years and I'm starting another post as I sit in the passenger seat of our car somewhere in the Arizona desert with the thermometer pushing 122° and I am once again facing a new path. 
Picture
A New Path
Now, this is not because I find my work as a Tech TOSA lacking in any regards, I really love my job being a TOSA. Sure, I shared those same feeling that all educators do once they step out of the classroom of missing the connections with students.  As a TOSA I anticipated that I would have many of these opportunities to connect with kids as I moved from school to school and class to class working in classrooms. At times this did happen (just this last spring I had the incredible opportunity to work with the 6th grade classes at Sierra Elementary and their fantastic teachers assisting with their Environmental PSA videos). This experience was one of the highlights of my TOSA life! Thanks again to all of you for letting me come out!  Here is a link to the YouTube playlist of videos these kids made. 
As much as I thoroughly enjoyed these opportunities, the reality of my job was that these opportunities did not come around as often as I thought they would have. The primary reason for this was simply the scope of the job and the size of my district. Being the only Tech TOSA in a district serving 11 elementaries, 2 middle, 2 high, 1 alternative and 1 charter made it a bit of a challenge getting into classrooms. Even with these challenges and how much I found myself missing the classroom, I still loved going to work each day and assisting teachers, building capacity and helping the district move forward with the betterment of the teaching profession. The biggest PLUS in terms of this job was being part of what we called “Team TOSA”. This is the incredible group of TOSAs with whom over the past two years I have worked in planning, collaborating and laughing over so many projects.
 
So where does that leave me now?
 
Well, a lot went down in a short time and I’ll give you the Cliffsnotes version. 
 
A teaching job at Rocklin High (my previous school) in Broadcasting opened up and after talking with the principal and my family, it looked like we all wanted to see me back at the school. My oldest daughter will be a senior and my youngest is going into 8th grade. They both have grown up in our town of Rocklin observing me as a teacher and football coach their entire lives. They wanted to be at the high school with me, in my classes, and have us all be part of our rich school culture together. And yes… I wanted that too. It was the timing of this TOSA job two years ago which made this a challenge. But now, here we were with a new opportunity with a new class, one which ties in with my digital storytelling passions and allows me to back in the classroom at the school with my kids. 
 
One of my biggest concerns in all of this was leaving the body of work and connections I had made as a TOSA though. So, some conversations with lots of higher ups brought about a compromise that will allow me to juggle both roles. I will still get to remain as a part time TOSA and will work in the afternoons in that position while teaching Broadcasting in the morning.  In the end (hopefully) I get the best of both worlds. 
 
In closing I would like to thank a few people who really made this happen. 
 
First my Superintendent Roger Stock and Deputy Superintendent Kathy Pon. As I approached the two of them with this idea, the message that they gave me back about “whenever you put family first, the chips in life will fall into place” (sorry if I butchered your quote Roger!) made me feel confident that I was making the right choice.
 
Secondly, RHS Principal Davis Stewart who guided me through this process and shared with me his vision of the potential that this class has to be something special. Thanks Stew!
 
Lastly my wife and two daughters, you three were very supportive of me during this last stage as a TOSA and you desire to have me at RHS made this all happen. 
 
Alright, time to start lesson planning.
 
Uh...any ideas where I should start? 
Picture
26 Comments
Susan Benson
7/24/2017 01:48:39 pm

Congrats on your new gig! The students will surely benefit from your enthusiasm and knowledge.

Thank you for all your help this past year with our projects at Twin Oaks Elementary.

Best wishes for you and your family!

Reply
WPBakery Nulled link
9/5/2022 07:15:53 am

Really informative article, I had the opportunity to learn a lot, thank you. https://freecodezilla.net/wpbakery-page-builder-for-wordpress/

Reply
mobil ödeme bozdurma link
9/12/2022 12:55:17 am

Really informative article, I had the opportunity to learn a lot, thank you. https://odemebozdurma.com/

Reply
website kurma link
9/14/2022 02:42:29 pm

Really informative article, I had the opportunity to learn a lot, thank you. https://bit.ly/site-kurma

Reply
web site kurma link
9/30/2022 04:24:26 am

It's great to have this type of content. Good luck with your spirit. Thank you. https://bit.ly/site-kurma

Reply
yakakent escort link
10/5/2022 12:04:19 am

I think this post is useful for people. It has been very useful for me. Looking forward to the next one, thank you. https://escortnova.com/escort-ilanlari/samsun-escort/yakakent-escort/

Reply
ortahisar escort link
10/5/2022 09:12:19 am

It was a post that I found very successful. Good luck to you. https://escortnova.com/escort-ilanlari/trabzon-escort/ortahisar-escort/

Reply
puturge escort link
10/5/2022 04:49:51 pm

I follow your posts closely. I can find it thanks to your reliable share. Thank you. https://escortnova.com/escort-ilanlari/malatya-escort/puturge-escort/

Reply
hilvan escort link
10/6/2022 12:38:14 pm

I support your continuation of your posts. I will be happy as new posts come. Thank you. https://escortnova.com/escort-ilanlari/sanliurfa-escort/hilvan-escort/

Reply
mezitli escort link
10/7/2022 05:24:11 am

I think the content is at a successful level. It adds enough information. Thank you. https://escortnova.com/escort-ilanlari/mersin-escort/mezitli-escort/

Reply
idil escort link
10/7/2022 07:39:37 pm

Thank you for your sharing. I must say that I am successful in your content. https://escortnova.com/escort-ilanlari/sirnak-escort/idil-escort/

Reply
Korsan Taksi link
11/13/2022 08:09:05 am

Sitemizi ziyaret et: https://taksikenti.com/

Reply
ledger live link
11/20/2022 07:59:14 am

Ledger Live : Most trusted & secure crypto wallet

Reply
betinfo link
11/22/2022 12:43:49 pm

It was a successful post.These types of posts are very helpful.

Reply
evden iş imkanı link
11/23/2022 04:40:56 am

Hemen Göz At evde para kazanmaya basla: https://sites.google.com/view/evden-ek-is/

Reply
mrbahis link
12/6/2022 09:01:56 pm

Congratulations for the successful article. I can't wait for the sequel.

Reply
vbet link
12/9/2022 07:45:18 am

Congratulations, it's a nice post. I'm always waiting for such nice posts in the future.

Reply
tiktok takipçi satın al link
12/11/2022 02:46:30 am

Tiktok takipçi satın almak için tıkla: https://takipcialdim.com/tiktok-takipci-satin-al/

Reply
instagram beğeni satın al link
12/11/2022 02:46:45 am

İnstagram beğeni takipçi satın al: https://takipcialdim.com/instagram-begeni-satin-al/

Reply
betmatik link
12/16/2022 06:19:45 pm

Betmatik giriş adresine ulaşmak için tıkla.

Reply
sms onay link
12/16/2022 07:29:42 pm

Tıkla: https://www.smsonay.com/

Reply
takipçi satın al link
12/16/2022 07:33:16 pm

takipci satın almak için tıkla: https://takipcim.com.tr/

Reply
betpark link
12/18/2022 09:03:08 pm

Betpark giriş adresi burada.

Reply
instagram takipçi satın al link
12/19/2022 09:34:00 pm

İnstagram takipçi satın almak istiyorsan tıkla.

Reply
casino siteleri link
12/29/2022 01:15:50 am

hemen göz at casino oyna: http://haikuboy.com

Reply
100 tl bonus veren siteler link
1/5/2023 04:40:55 am

100 tl deneme bonusu veren siteleri öğrenmek istiyorsan tıkla.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    RSS Feed

    Recent Posts

    Libraries and "What I'm Reading" Template​

    Tough Talk... Political Conversations in the Classroom
    ​

    Goodbye Padlet

    #ArmMeWith
    ​

    UPDATE: The New Tab I Open In Chrome Is...
    ​
    Orbits

    Twitter Hashtags for Education

    Top Five Non Education Podcast Episodes of 2017

    5 Ideas For Your Home Page

    ​
    The Importance of Taking Notes

    8 podcast episodes you should check out

    ​Blocking
    ​
    Waiting for the Tidal Wave


    Be a power user when editing your photos

    Thanks Smartphone

    Episode V: The Classroom Strikes Back

    Is it too late to apologize to my senior English teacher?

    ​Want to make a movie? Have you heard of PowerPoint?

    ​
    Make Your Own Memes

    My 100th Blog Post

    What Is The Internet?

    Bingo for the Classroom


    Bring Star Wars Into Any Classroom

    Sticky Notes & Candy Wrappers from Google Drawing

    Top 15 Google April Fool's pranks

    ​
    CUE 2017 Reflections

    ​​
    Visual Primary Sources

    Twitter is like.... 

    My Top 10 Chrome Extensions

    ​Share Your Stickers

    I'm Not Really The Best Co-Worker


    So, You Want To Start A Podcast?

    What Does Your New Tab Do?

    My favorite Google Docs sharing request

    Build Your Own Green Screen Kits

    Need Music and Sounds for your next Project?

    ​What's In Your Bag?

    3 Tips for Teaching With Images

    ​6 Degrees of Wikipedia

    Candy Quiz!
    ​

    Am I The Only One Who Didn't Know About "Alt Codes"?

    Have you heard of Fiverr yet?

    4 Fake Headline Generators

    Hour of Code: Check... Now What?

    To Scan or Not Scan... That is the Question!
    ​
    #createwith
    chromebooks


    How little classrooms have changed

    Tips for having student listen to audio clips

    "I Finally Got Twitter!".

    YouTube Tools You Maybe Haven't Thought Of

    Ed Tech Cartoons

    9 Tools for Making Quick Videos

    ​
    Google Innovator Update

    Wish Me Luck!


    Agendas Using Google Slides

    Yes, I Used To Collect Comic Books

    So long Summer!

    On A Midnight Plane From Georgia

    History Dinner Party

    My Year By The Numbers
    ​

    12 Things Students Should Never Do on Social Media

    What's In A Name?

    I'm The Map!

    Historical Images in Lego

    Sharing Podcasts

    Ken Robinson is going to Check This Out!

    Code Monkey
    ​

    8 Student Blogs to Check Out
    ​

    Watering Rocks

    A "Bittersweet" lesson on copyright

    "Don’t Copy That Floppy" Software Piracy

    Fun & Games with Google Maps

    Bring Star Wars Into Any Classroom

    Fact vs Fiction

    CUE 16 Reflections

    Where, How and Why to find good copyright free images

    7 Reasons To Start Using Google Photos


    "School of Rock" & Project Based Learning

    Learn About Search

    More Ideas For Using Padlet

    Fictional Twitter Profiles

    Blogging... Who, What, When, Where, Why
    ​
    Newsletters


    Ed Camp 123 Reflections

    NASA's Apollo photos online​

    Creative Ways to use Tag Clouds​

    Virtual Reality: Apps, Ideas & Resources

    George Lucas Likes Ice Cream

    Top 6 Star Wars Parody Songs

    More Twitter Stuff - Visual Twitter Tools

    ​Sticky Notes to help understand Twitter





    ​
    Categories

    All
    App Smashing
    Blogging
    Collaboration
    CUE
    Digital-citizenship
    Digital Storytelling
    Flickr
    Google
    Graphic Organizers
    Green Screen
    Lang Arts
    Newsletter
    Podcasting
    Professional Development
    Project Based Learning
    Science
    Social Studies
    Space
    Star Wars
    TCM Resources
    Twitter
    Virtual Reality

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Templates
  • Game Shows
  • Listicles
  • Trainings