I think I might be a revolutionary

Over spring break, I got to go back to my Alma Mater with my godson and his mother.  His mother and I both attended the same college and we both loved our time there.  My godson is in 9th grade and is interested in  a program they have there so this was not our typical visit to our old stomping grounds.  We met with an adviser from the program.  It was a great visit.  She had the perfect words for a 9th grader who is not taking his education serious enough.

So, since spring break, I have been thinking about the things she advised him to do.  As any good adviser would encourage, she  told him he needed to have the best grades possible.  She also told him that he needed to start looking at  taking college courses while still in high school.  (I think this was more parental advice as she has grown children who were still paying off college debt.)  She told him that if he got accepted into the program, she would highly encourage him to participate in an internship.  She introduced us to a student  who had recently participated in an internship with a major player in the field. The experience he described was AMAZING.  Day one, he was asked to "take the Christmas tree down in the lounge" and he ended the experience working on a major national project for this company.  I found this fascinating.

This whole internship thing really seems to be the way to go.  If we want our students to be college and career ready, why do we wait so long to groom their talents and interests? There is no better experience than the experience.  I read a Twitter post today "You never want to get on a plane where the pilot learned to fly from worksheets." Yeah.  Absolutely.

A few weeks ago, we were out for lunch with some friends.  One of our friends always asks me "What do you think about this Common Core stuff?"  Like many people, he believes that the government has gone too far in its reach.  At some point in this conversation, we started talking about college.  Somewhere in there, my mouth started to run.  I stated that I felt that the future was not necessarily to get a degree from a college but to take classes and to also make those connections of internships in the fields of interest.  We demand so much of a 14, 15, 16, 17 year old to "know" what it is they want to do.  And when they don't, how do we help them?

When I look back at  where I started and where I am now?

In 8th grade, I had a teacher tell me I was a good writer and I should focus on that field.  It took me all the way until my 2nd year of college to discover that Journalism was not my field.  I DID NOT LIKE IT.

I tell students:

• I am the queen of change your major.   
• I :
• started out as a journalism major  (HATED IT)
• earned a bachelor of general studies
• worked in property management (GOT FIRED)
• worked in the restaurant management business
• went back to school to be a social studies teacher(really connected with a teacher who worked with students with learning disabilities)
• worked as a substitute teacher and waitress (job ads were looking for varsity coaches who could teach.....something, anything) 
• went back to school to become a "special education  teacher" (what we were called before we were Intervention Specialists)

• I am lucky to have a job that I enjoy.  You will be lucky too if you can find something you are good at that pays money.  If not, find something that pays you money so that you can do the things you are good at when you are not working. 

Myself and my first cousins are the first generation of our family to go to college.  When we went, we did not know what we were doing.  My parents did not know what college was going to be like because they had not experienced it.  I was always a good student but I did not know what I wanted to be or do.  If I had been given some experiences in the world, maybe I would have  figured things out earlier.  I have always been jealous of the person who has always known their destiny.  For those of us who haven't, we need experiences to help us along. Even those who do know would benefit from experience.

Revolutionary or common sense?

The Best People

Right now, the freshman class is reading Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird". I remember reading this book oh so long ago when I was in 9th grade. Beyond the capturing of a time in American  history, more than the figurative language, there is a great lesson in this story: Stand up for what you think is right regardless of what other people think.  This essence of Atticus Finch is something that the teachers I work with embody everyday as they work with students who struggle with school. This is why I admire each and every one of them for the things they do to help students regardless of what people think.