Zombie Outbreak

Well friends,

It's the middle of the semester. You know what that means - zombie-like students in the classroom - unwilling, perhaps even unable, to engage in the course materials. If you didn't know any better, you'd think it was an 8am 3 hour lecture course, but a quick glimpse at the clock reminds you that you teach in the afternoon and this class only lasts 50 minutes. Lively in the hallway, they fall quiet as soon as they enter the classroom, choosing only to indulge into technology or doze off with one single hand holding up their head.

Interesting. I remember my class being more lively and engaged? #dontpanic



Since it's the middle of the semester, I want to be understanding (after all, I'm a student still myself, I feel the struggle), but perhaps it's that desire for understanding that has lead to week 3 of seemingly brain-dead 1010 students. As Palmer (2007) states, "the way we diagnose our students' condition will determine the kind of remedy we offer... That caricature highlights a truth: our assumption that students are brain-dead leads to pedagogies that deaden their brains" (p. 42). Despite me wanting to empathize and be understanding with my students, I cannot and will not settle for accepting "brain-dead" as the new norm in classroom participation. My subconscious caution may accidentally be preventing me from upholding a high expectation from my students within the classroom.

Since this epiphany came to me, I have spent quite a bit more time planning my classes for the upcoming week. I want to continue to encourage and push my students outside of their comfort zones and into realms of critical thinking. I need to remember #dontpanic when my students are unresponsive. Instead I should approach engagement from a different pedagogical perspective. I encourage you all to join me in assessing this part of the semesters' student engagement levels & associated reasonings - is it midterms or pedagogies that deaden the brain?

Be Your Own Teammate: Take Care of Each Other

An aspect of teaching we have not discussed in depth is the importance of preserving our physical and mental health. In one of our very firsts blog posts, Rudi gave us tips and tricks on how to stay healthy in graduate school. She gave us insight on easy ways to protect our health, such as taking mental breaks to do things we enjoy as well as simply just drinking water.

Before starting the semester, I ran a couple miles a day, cooked healthy meals three times a day, and made sure I had at least 8 hours of sleep every night. I made it part of my daily routine to choose an activity, other than running, that involved me being outside and underneath the sun. To foster my personal relationships,  I allocated time to make phone calls back to California to check-in with my family, friends, and significant other. I watched documentaries that inspired me and I journaled quite a bit about my future plans. Life was great and I felt even better. Fast forward to today: Life sucks and I feel like dog crap. I haven't worked out since the semester started, I'm eating at Pot Belly's everyday, I sleep irregularly, and I'm semi-monthly binge drinking. I haven't talked to my family in weeks, I've forgotten multiple friends' birthdays, and I feel absolutely defeated.

However, this feeling is very familiar. I remember my last season of soccer, I was performing terribly. My coach, who was not from the U.S. told me, "You need to lose weight. Eat only salads. You are fat."

You can imagine how I took that. I began working out before and after practices, eating minimal meals, forgetting about my social life, and cramming any free time to finish my studies. My physical and mental health were terrible. It wasn't until I started to perform worse that I realized obsessively focusing on improving my job (at the time, being an athlete) was actually making me perform my job worse.

Moral of the story: Get your shit done, but don't devote your entire existence to being a teacher and/or student. It's so important to immerse yourself in the graduate student lifestyle and learn how to prioritize your time. I mean if graduate school were easy, everyone would do it, right? However, there is a difference between abusing your body (and mind) in order to get the job done.

Beyond grad school, we will be incredibly busy. Some of us will have jobs, be married, and pop out a bunch of those gross little humans- I mean babies. We must to be passionate about our roles in life, but also remember that there is a beauty in balancing these roles.  

As a teacher, we are expected to wear many hats. There is a phrase in soccer called "a hat trick" that we use to indicate when someone has scored three consecutive goals by one person. Therefore, no one except for that person can make a goal in between the goals that they have scored. Although I was a goalkeeper and wasn't able to have an opportunity to make any goals, being a student-teacher has allowed me to create 3 new goals to achieve, one after the other: Body + Mind + Soul.  

#Pedagoalie

#DoYourJob

DO YOUR JOB.

I’m sorry y’all. Being the crazy Boston sports fan that I am, I had to talk about this little piece of wisdom that our pal Fish gave us. “Do Your Job” is the trademark motto of the New England Patriots, aka the greatest professional football team there is. It can be seen in bold letters and heard in loud (and proud) voices all over Gillette Stadium, used as a hashtag by players and fans alike on social media, and plastered on t-shirts being sold on street corners all over Boston and in every Patriots merchandise shop. Whether you’re watching from the 50 yard line or your couch, you will know that the Patriots are here to do their job.

I think one of the biggest reasons New England fans like this phrase so much is because it brings us a sense of confidence and stability. The Patriots know what their job is, and they know how to do it. As fans, we know that they will succeed. The job of the New England Patriots is to win, and they are expected to do anything and everything to get that done. Patriots fans are so used to winning, that anything less is a complete disappointment. We’re taught that the Patriots will always come out on top, because that’s their job. And that’s what usually happens ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

via GIPHY

In class, we asked ourselves as teachers, “what is our job?” When Fish says “do your job” to educators, what exactly is he saying to do? While Fish defines our job as basically to teach and do nothing else, we defined our job as something more than that. Our job is much more than just giving students the analytical tools that they need and just dumping information on them. Of course it is important to give them these tools, but it’s also important to show them how to use them in ways that are moral and ethical so that they may grow to be socially responsible and just overall better people.

Teachers play such an important role in the lives of their students. While teachers have many students, students only have a small number of teachers. For a portion of their day, two or three times a week, every week for 4 months, students look to teachers to deliver course content, while also making it interesting, fun, and worthwhile. Our time with these kids is limited, why waste it being boring?

There’s always going to be people who tell you to just shut up and do your job. When this happens, ask yourself, what exactly is your job? What is it that people are telling you to do? And once you figure that out, ask yourself what YOU think your job is and how you can go above and beyond these job requirements to make a difference. Don’t let the skeptics of this world get you down. Tom Brady sure doesn’t.

via GIPHY

#keeponkeepinon

Finally :-D

I don't know about y'all but sometimes when y'all are talking in class, I feel like I don't know what the hell is going on. I seriously think, how did I even get to Grad school? lol

As the weeks go by, though, I have been feeling a bit more confident after receiving a few grades back. Maybe I do belong here. I must be doing something right. Although I did get 1 B, I feel like I can work harder and do better. I can get things done!
This goes along with the classes I teach as well. In the beginning I didn't think that I would do great, but as of right now I think I have done as much as I could to help my students out (at least the ones who are motivated to do good). I always have so much to grade since everyone does their assignments, 90 times how many essays??!! I think I am finally catching up y'all! I will be doing a lot of that tonight for sure so that I don't have things piling up. Luckily, a lot of students were absent during essays #HoustonWeHaveAProblem (Not good for them, but good for me), so that helped speed up the grading process, yay! My point is, I am finally feeling like I am in a good position. The only thing that might have me stressing a little is my adaptation performance. Hopefully by forcing myself to use Fish's ideas, I can focus on just getting that assignment done and moving on. I probably won't retain any info after the class is done (#DebbieDowner) but at least I will learn it for the time being. I can be on the Banking model temporarily, can't I?
Just 7 more weeks of school right? I can do this. I am doing great and the finish line is almost in sight. If I just keep motivated and get my shit done, no one can stop me. I got this!

Why We Should Care About Our Students (Even When We Don't Want To)

When I played sports as an undergraduate, there was always a time in the semester where everything slowly began to crumble. It was usually right after pre-season had ended, all of the women had become completely comfortable around each other, and games began to count towards our season record. It was at that time that players began to decline in their performance, cat fights would emerge, and we'd usually start losing games in a row. This was my least favorite part of playing sports, so in a way, I was eagerly thrilled to not have to experience all that my first semester of grad school as a student-teacher, not an athlete. 

Siiiiiiike. 

It's Week 8 and although I am no longer an undergraduate athlete, I realized that this "lull" is not limited to the soccer field. My students have become completely comfortable with the climate of the classroom, we've gone through a couple waves of assignments, and I'm starting to input more and more 0's into their grades on Blackboard. I've done my best to remind them every class period (literally, every. Damn. Class. Period.) what is due and what they need to be working on. Yet, I am being bombarded with emails at 11:50PM every Sunday night asking questions I have addressed in class. 

Instead of letting my frustrations take over my teaching style, I took a moment today to reflect on what was actually happening. Everyone (students, teachers, athletes, coaches, employees, etc) will have a time where they need that extra nudge or push in order for them to open up their eyes and get their butt in gear; It's human nature to want to get comfortable! Instead of having a the classic Coming to Jesus Moment that many teachers cringe to think about, I did something much familiar to what I experienced as an athlete.  

After finishing speeches leftover from last week, I took a brief 5 minutes to let my class know how much I genuinely care about them. I spoke about how I enjoy my job  because of them and how they're remarkable individuals and that they're all here for a reason. I let them know what an accomplishment it is to even be sitting in their seats; A luxury many people will never experience. "Essentially, you can try to motivate apathetic or lazy students by consistently reinforcing the idea that they are in charge of their own learning, that they can achieve their own goals, and that there is a reason to do so" (Dannels, 2015). After letting them know how much I care about them, I let them know how disappointed I was in their behaviors. I was completely honest with them about how many of them are on the road to failing this class and that choosing not to turn in their work is unacceptable. I did not nag or yell or threaten their grades. I simply spoke with conviction. After class, many students approached me. Some apologized, some asked what they can do to correct their mistakes, and some thanked me for caring about them. 

I've had a handful of talks with my class about how they need to turn their assignments in or how they need to show up for class. However, this was the first time all semester that I truly felt a reciprocated connection to my students. Not only did I care about them, but they cared about me.

Athletics and academics function in very similar ways. Similar to being a coach, if you are able to connect with your students on a deeper level, they will never intentionally try to hurt the relationship between you and them. Therefore, they will want to try to mend the relationship if they think it was broken. I am looking forward to helping my students achieve their potential while sharing the same bond Mexico's Head Coach Miguel Herrera shares with his team.

#Pedagoalie

Perceptions 101

The other day, I went into a fellow TA’s classroom as an undercover student. I wore a Razorback (Arkansas mascot) hat. Their perceptions of me were: hunter, fisher, and country music lover. To be honest, that is the farthest from the truth.

It’s funny how we have different perceptions of people, especially our students.

When I first started teaching my class, I didn’t know what to think of them. Were they going to be nice to me? Were they going to be respectful? Were they going to like me? Of course, I had my own assumptions but I always thought optimistically.

From here on out, I perceive that my students will be smart, motivated, hard-working, and engaged. So here’s to throwing away negative perceptions and having the best students that a TA could ever ask for.

#pedamorgie #stayinyourlain

Characteristics of a Successful Student

Lately, I have noticed a slew of students that I think will be successful in college. They tend to get 100’s on every assignment, they come to class with great questions, and overall they just do their work. I honestly appreciate their patience and endurance for Comm 1010. I know it might be a little early in the semester and that any student can change their ways but I feel like a teacher can predict who wants to be successful in the course from the students who don’t.

 I solemnly vow to not judge my students. I truly believe that every single student is smart, but some can also be lazy. The students that I think will not be successful are the ones who never show up, are constantly on their phones, and lacks engagement in every class meeting. 

Honestly, I feel for these students. I truly want them to do well, especially for an introductory course. I encourage each and every one of them to come to me if they need help. As a new teacher, I have vowed to myself to always be there for my students and always be transparent.

I hope that these students feel comfortable coming to me and that they want to thrive in this course and honestly, in college in general.

#pedamorgie #stayinyourlain