Time Keeps Speeding into the Future

Lately, I feel like the kid who missed the bus and starts running after it with all her might. All this exertion only to see the bus accelerate  faster and faster and leave me behind. That is the way I feel with time. Time is the bus that is always racing away just out of reach. How do I reach out and grab time and own it, control it, and use it for my improvement and success? I never have enough. Is it just me or do the days fly by faster as one grows older? Minutes seem like seconds, an hour is like ten minutes, and a day is  now only a blip of time soon to be forgotten. It seems like yesterday that I was in high school. It is even more strange to recall the way I used to look at the world and remember certain thoughts when I was ten and even five.

All of a sudden, time races by and I am an adult, living on my own, married, and coming closer to the end of my journey of becoming a teacher. Yes, a teacher. A teacher who is responsible for the education of many young lives. A teacher. A person that helps prepare kids for adulthood. A teacher. One that does his or her best to give everything they have to help better the world by educating and inspiring young minds. Am I alone when I sometimes feel intimidated and overwhelmed with these thoughts? Many people never want to be a brain surgeon for various reasons. A common one is that if they mess up they do not want to be responsible for losing a life. This may sound heavy, but it is similar with a teacher. Not giving a student every opportunity to succeed because the teacher is lacking skill and knowledge takes away from the life of a child. Imagine if a student had one of these teachers who were not quite ready every year they were in school. What does that add up to?... a life lost. A life that contains no direction. So, in a sense, teachers are brain surgeons. Instead of repairing them, though, we get to fill them with the knowledge to help them succeed. So I ask my fellow future teachers, are you ready for such a responsibility and for such an important role in the world? Honestly, I do not yet feel ready. I will take the time needed to be ready, and I will not step into the classroom as a teacher until I feel ready to fill that role. That is why I will not student teach until the fall semester so I feel that I can better prepare myself to be the best that I can. Of course, I know much learning takes place in the first years of teaching and mistakes will be made. Being fully prepared will help me to know how to improve.

So, I will use time to my advantage. I will harness time, try to slow it down, and be ready for the journey ahead.

My KATE Conference Experience

My, it has been awhile since I have posted on my blog! Anyway the KATE conference was a wonderful experience and I am glad to have attended. I had the opportunity to attend three conferences, "The Beauty of Everyday Conversation" with Jeremy and Beth Gulley, "More than Sexual Orientation.." with our very own Katie Mason, and "Creative Common Core Aligned Lessons.." with Suzy Oertel. I also was able to catch about half of Jay Asher's presentation because a grumbling stomach made leave in search of lunch (I kicked myself for not registering for lunch there. It seemed convenient, and those desserts looked heavenly!) After waiting about thirty minutes for the Marriot restaurant to make me a sandwich, I rushed over to eat my sandwich at a table behind the entrance to the ballroom. Vaguely hearing a few sentences by Jay Asher, I wished I was there to see the whole thing. After eating my over sized sandwich that hurt my jaw to get my mouth around, (it was good though) I took a seat just behind the entrance to the ballroom. Jay Asher was very entertaining and funny and I definitely want to read his book. I was excited to hear that they may have a movie in the works.

I wish I was able to attend "Survivalism 101..." I heard it was great and I bet I could have learned a lot from it. Oh well... Maybe next year.

"The Beauty of Everyday Conversation" was great.  I learned a good way to intrigue my future students with writing creatively. The presenters told us to transform a sample essay paragraph into a dialogue with our own creative twist with how our grandmother (the main character in the essay) and ourselves would converse in a casino. It was fun thinking of my grandmother in a casino because I don't think in reality the scene would ever happen being that my grandmother is very religious. It was interesting to hear the stories read aloud.

I also attended Katie Mason's conference "More than Sexual Orientation..."  I attended this one because honestly I love being read to and her book talks and it seemed like the most interesting session offered at the time. This session was the most informative to me. (I'm really not brown-nosing!) I received a great list of YAL with LGBTQ content that I can include on my future classroom shelves. "Jumpstart the World" is a book I have my eye on to read in the near future. The powerpoint included statistics about LGBTQ adolescents and made me aware what many of them endure in school. I think teachers should make it known that it is important to accept other lifestyles than what one is used to and that bullying or turning a blind eye is unacceptable. If all teachers did this, it would help to fight against discrimination of LGBTQ students. I think that supplying classroom shelves with books that contain LGBTQ content will also help students to understand LGBTQ students by seeing the world through their perspective. Hopefully, this would dissuade bullying as well.

My third and final conference was "Creative Common Core Aligned Lessons." This is the session gave me the most ideas that I will use as a future teacher.  I received some useful handouts from this conference. They spoke about creative and interesting lesson ideas that align with state standards. I will be referencing their handouts to help with with ideas in the future!

Overall, I had a great experience at KATE. I learned a bunch and enjoyed the good food and beautiful atmosphere of the Marriott.  I only would have to suggest that they offer a session on classroom management. I need all the tips I can get! I  also did not really get a chance to network with English teachers since everyone moved about quite rapidly and were in groups talking with people they knew. Hopefully, I will have the chance in the future because I want to attend KATE again. It was well worth the 25 dollars!