Today, I am grateful to be able to experience Buff Bash 2023!
This is my first year at Tempe High School and hearing how excited seniors were for this event because it had not happened since their freshman year was cool. The pandemic disrupted all of our lives. Some of us were more fortunate than others but all of us experienced some level of disruption from school, shopping, going to the movies or restaurants. Things changed. Events that schools "normally" put on were put on hold and then people moved on and others decided to shift things around or off of their plates and we end up not having the same events as before. It was fun to see young people moving around and interacting. It was fun to hear people laughing. It was good to be outside on a beautiful day! I wanted to contribute so I stayed after and picked up garbage and found all these tickets! Lucky me! The nachos were all sold out though! Next Year!
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Today, I am grateful for windows in my classroom.
In my first six years of teaching, my two classrooms had a wall of windows and I really enjoyed seeing the sunshine, cloudy days, rain, or snow falling throughout the seasons. The last three years before this school year, I had an interior room that did not have any windows and I believe contributed to my poor mental health, along with other things happening in my life. This year, this, almost literal wall of windows is beautiful. Knowing the science behind learning and teaching psychology about learning, mental health and physical health, natural light is a necesity. I cannot believe that we allow children to be in rooms for hours throughout their days without natural light. This concept is absolutely wild to me and makes me think that as a society we do not like children. I have not turned my overhead lights on all school year and will continue to just use the couple of lamps I have, only. The natural light is beautiful and I want my students to be in an environment that is calming and good for their mental health. Today, I am grateful for being able to create interesting lessons for students to engage with.
I want to make this learning opportunity interesting and meaningful. I want to connect what we are learning to the students lives and the students lives to what we are needing to engage with. I have not had a year, yet, and this may not be totally positive, that I have done the exact same thing with the exact same lessons. I have tried different projects and different ways of engaging with the content to hopefully find a way for all students to see and feel their successes throughout the school year. I have great pride in the time and effort that I have put into creating my website for students to access the history, psychology and government that we are engaging with. I ask and guide students through creating their own portfolios so that they can see that they can create their own website as well. Everything that I do I do so that students can see that I give everything that I have but I also help guide them through creating it themselves so they can do it on their own. I do not want to be a gatekeeper. I reflect regularly if what I am doing is preventing someone from achieving or going where they want. I am not a holder of knowledge that others cannot have. I give freely of all the resources and understandings as I have and continue to grow through these interactions. I hope I can play some small role in students and colleagues learning journeys because I know that every student interaction and colleague interaction has impacted me to be the educator and person that I am. Today, I am grateful for getting out of bed and being here on a Monday. Some times that hardest part is showing up. I am tired from working over the weekend but I want to show up. I just checked, we only have 7 more Mondays this school year. That is wild. Today, my goal is to make this a good Monday. Today, I am grateful for the ability to make ends meet. I am a full time educator. I take pride in what I have created and present to students to engage with. I often arrive at school an hour before school and stay after so that I can complete what is needed without taking it home with me. I want to do good work for my students. It makes me super frustrated that I have the need to get a second job to fill the gaps that my teaching pay leaves with what I am doing to live. I have a reliable car. I have a one bedroom apartment. I have nice things but I do not believe I am living or spending way outside my means. But still, I need to have a second job in this stage of my life. This is why I am involved in our teachers union, to advocate for all teachers to be respected by the pay we receive. I have been able to meet so many cool people while working at Four Peaks. Today, while being outside, I took a second to take a deep breath and be grateful that I am able to do what I need to do at this stage of my life to provide for myself and my kids. Today, I am grateful for video games and playing with my buddies. We play Call of Duty, mostly Resurgence Quads/Trios/Duos. We have played hunting games. Seasons in Madden. Golf. I am a social gamer. I play with my friends and use the time to talk about our families, sports and many other topics. This is our way to stay in contact with eachother. We Snap our group chat to see if anyone is available and only one other person needs to reply for us to get on. What makes this even more fun is that I went to middle school, high school and college with these guys. We all live in three different timezones. I get messages at 6am to play because on the east coast it is almost 10am and the morning activities are already done. I have to remind myself after playing or when I am feeling that I need to "go out" and be social that there are different forms of being social and playing video games with my buddies is one of them. I am grateful that we find time to stay connected through video games! Today, I am grateful for hope.
I have hope that things will work out for good. I want to be a good father, a good friend, a good colleague, a good brother, a good educator, a good son, and a good uncle. I feel like I cannot get ahead but I have hope. I know that I have people around me that support me. I keep feeling like I take a couple steps forward but then I take four steps backward. I go to sleep hopeful the next day will be better. I wake up hopeful that what I have been doing will allow me to make good decisions throughout my day. Today, I am hopeful. Today, I am grateful for the feeling of possibilities on MLBs Opening Day.
Today, every school has the same record and the hope of something special this season. I have been able to go to games with my brother and his son, my father and my son and I will cherish those times with all of my heart. The game is the game. Maybe what I am more thankful for is the time that I get to spend with the people that I love. Today, I am grateful for Suns basketball.
Basketball is my favorite sport. I have enjoyed with moving to Arizona and the Valley that I have a team that is close by that I can support. Now that the Suns have Kevin Durant the end of the season is going to be interesting and the playoffs could be awesome! I have been able to go to multiple games early in the season and being in the stadium seeing some of my favorite players is a great way to relax and have fun outside of school! Students, if you are looking for any gifts to make the classroom be doper, anything supporting the Suns would be cool! Today, I am grateful to be able to be an active member of our teachers Union.
I believe in the power of collectively coming together with my colleagues to advocate for our working conditions, benefits and compensation. Tonight, I was able to attend a training that was focused around preparing us presenters to do good work for the professional development summit called Unbreakable Solidarity. I was able to meet with other educators from around the Valley and become more knowledgeable about how to create positive learning opportunities in our presentation. Finding colleagues that are like-minded and passionate about advocating for our public schools has allowed me to build relationships and find ways to do work that I am passionate about. What we have in our public schools is not magic. Hundreds and thousands of people are working very hard to provide the best possible environments for students to learn. I am happy and committed to doing my part to make sure public education is advocated for locally, state-wide and nationally! |
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Header (above) - Black Hills, SD, 2013 Portrait (below) - Me! Compadre High School, 2021 Dylan WinceI am not a writer. Archives
May 2024
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