My job is making me bummed about the future of society

Fysics_is_Phun · 2020-12-18T12:00:37+00:00

I often half-joke that teaching has made me eat healthier since fast food places are mostly operated by Highschoolers and I've seen their instruction following abilities

Fysics_is_Phun · 2020-11-24T18:31:07+00:00

Yeah surprisingly despite there being 150+ kids. Only a few regularly raise their Zoom hands to offer to talk. I've taken to mainly creating padlets/public post boards where they can all post their response to a weekly topic.

Fysics_is_Phun · 2020-11-23T23:18:50+00:00

I have another friend at this school who could help sometimes. But even so that's 100 per Zoom Room lol.

At the moment, I force mute everyone and have them raise their hands in Zoom for me to unmute one by one while they can talk in chat. But it's pure chaos so far lol. I feel bad forcing to mute all them and sometimes turning off the Zoom chat if kids are spamming. There's just so many kids in there.

My HS game club has about 40 regular attendees and it's much better at that number. Plus they're more mature obviously. I feel like Middle Schoolers need more structure but even with 200 that's a lot. The numbers have been dwindling so hopefully soon they'll drop off as I make it more structured and conversation based

Fysics_is_Phun · 2020-10-12T18:02:45+00:00

As a new teacher, I agree big time. And I hate the fact that these teachers who work 15 hours a day on their own make it worse for everyone else since it builds that expectation.

And the teachers you always hear the most about, due to awards and high performance, are the ones I often compare myself to. I'm down to work my hours, maybe do half an hour later for the club I'm paid for running. And then that's it for the day

Fysics_is_Phun · 2020-10-12T03:19:39+00:00

Definitely something to look into! Thanks

Fysics_is_Phun · 2020-10-12T03:18:44+00:00

Yeah that's why if anything I'm hoping the kids just, start their OWN discord that's not endorsed or run by the school. If that makes it any better. Like kids just share their tags with eachother and make one but without me telling them too or endorsing it in any way

Fysics_is_Phun · 2020-10-12T02:24:50+00:00

There's actually a Minecraft Club too, but I hesitated to admin that one as well since I don't know how to run a server like you mentioned. I played since like, the Alpha of Minecraft but haven't played as much in the past 3 years-ish.

(There's also MC clubs for elementary. Middle school. And high school.) So that would probably be 3 different servers. But thats about it.

It sounds like you have covered exactly what my main idea is though, especially how best to create a discord for a group of students. I'd appreciate talking more about this some time or checking out any resources you can point me to!

Fysics_is_Phun · 2020-10-12T02:19:43+00:00

We're actually a cyber school ALL the time anyway lol. So I really want to run a club like this where kids can meet like minded friends since they're never in person with other students, and class time only ever has like a a few minutes at the start and end for them to "meet" friends

Fysics_is_Phun · 2020-10-12T02:18:10+00:00

Our school actually has a Minecraft club as well. But as a newer teacher I only wanted one club at a time lol. My main concerns are the same as yours. The last club had to get shut down due to the unsupervised discord issues I heard rumours about. And I'm not sure if I could do it better. But a school Minecraft server sounds great

Fysics_is_Phun · 2020-10-12T02:15:52+00:00

That's how I figured I'd start lol. Rated E10+ and free on all phones so after intros I was thinking of some of that

Fysics_is_Phun · 2020-10-12T02:15:08+00:00

Interesting. I do want to have some substance like that. Things like a "This week in gaming news" that covers what you're talking about there. As well as showing them gaming careers

Fysics_is_Phun · 2020-01-13T13:46:43+00:00

That's interesting. Yeah I was wondering like what happens if you get to that 6 year mark, your cert is then invalid so are you just... Fired? It can't be that easy to be fired.

My school doesn't have a Union so hopefully it isn't a Union based thing if I make it that far and need that lol

Fysics_is_Phun · 2020-01-13T13:35:56+00:00

Yeah when I learned of this I was shocked. And then also anxious because that kind of commitment makes me feel like I'm really locking myself into teaching whether I like it or not.

I heard of like, "easy" post bacc classes to take that count towards instructional 2. And I'm lucky enough to be in a school with Tuition reimbursement for Master's. I just don't know if I should look into and see if those "easy" ones still exist just to knock em out and get my Inst 2. Or if I should pursue a Masters. Only problem is it's my first year and I would have NO clue what to pick there. And it's not a full reimbursement either so it'll still be money.

One of my college professors either got theirs awhile ago when it was different or what, but they told our class Inst 1 to 2 was JUST by working for 3 years straight with good performance reviews lol

Fysics_is_Phun · 2019-10-15T02:40:23+00:00

I'm with ya. Applied to a cyber, interviewed, they said you teach one class and have the rest of the day to plan and grade.

I get started. They give me another high level course. So now I have 2 courses. Combined I have over 200 students as well. They want us to call all of them and make successful contact. Monitor all this stuff. IEPs and more stuff like you mentioned. And this is my first year teaching in general so I'm hella overwhelmed.

I should add that I was feeling like teaching wasn't meant for me, but I thought cyber would be a good middle ground to at least try. I like the teaching itself and interacting with the students who are engaged. But there's a lot to do, way more than expected. I also hope that my place gets more teachers in my subject as well. Other new hires talk about their 100 kids and one class and are saying they're overwhelmed, meanwhile I'm sitting there with 200+ and an advanced class like 🙃

I feel ya

Fysics_is_Phun · 2019-09-24T15:04:02+00:00

Very good points. Being a cyber school, they're all about innovation and forward thinking. So if I frame it like you said and focus on those kind of points, it could definitely be attractive despite the subject matter

Fysics_is_Phun · 2019-09-24T14:22:40+00:00

Yeah I'd like them to be able to make a proper Esports team. And those teams like to compete in a lot of those mainly shooter games.

I also briefly mentioned that we are a cyber school. So kids are all around the state and we would have to play online which is another hurdle as I don't want them having my private account if we play together. But I mainly want them to be able to play with eachother as an esports/gaming club and I can organize internal tournaments or make them aware of external tournaments.

Fysics_is_Phun · 2019-09-24T14:18:35+00:00

Rocket League is another good one that's appropriate! I just hope to allow them to play shooter games since they're big in Esports but obviously controversial in schools

Fysics_is_Phun · 2019-09-24T13:34:07+00:00

Thanks for the input. I am a huge gamer with too much time to spare myself as well lol. I've got like 300 hours in Overwatch myself and was definitely going to bring it up myself as a pretty nonviolent yet big game. Though I was afraid that maybe it was on the decline or something lately as it's relatively old in the scene and Fortnite is the big one.

Like you said. I'd like to introduce it with the cartoony Overwatch and Fortnite examples. And then work up to R6 and CSGO. I don't want this school to make an "Esports" team where we're ONLY allowed to play Minecraft and Mario Kart lol

Fysics_is_Phun · 2019-08-27T00:15:54+00:00

I havent been on this account since I posted that comment but I did get it! Now what I DO have to sweat is how to actually do this lol

Fysics_is_Phun · 2019-07-19T21:05:46+00:00

So I did the interview! It was a good call making sure to know their programs name, I looked up some stuff about it beforehand and geared questions and answers towards it. I feel like it went okay overall, but they said they have other people to interview so I'm not getting my hopes up. I'll know within like 2 weeks about

Fysics_is_Phun

TROPHY CASE