Big Time Blog Challenge Day 3

Now that I've aired my misgivings about this whole blogging thing, I can try out the prompt from yesterday! Oh wait! One more thing! I kind of feel like this whole blogging thing...and I guess the twitter thing too...is a bit braggy. 

Who do you know who likes a loud AND braggy person? They're the worst! 

So I like to think of myself as humble to counteract being so visible. Which now by saying it means I'm not. But I guess showing off what my students are up to is better and more helpful than...look at these awesome muffins I made. But it's still something I'm conscious of. Ok. That's it! I'm ready!!! 

How long and in what capacities have you been in education?

Hmmm... well... I started grading my Mom's papers when I was in 2nd grade. She taught 1st. I graduated from Illinois Wesleyan University in 2008 with a Major in Elementary Education a Minor in English, some middle school endorsements, and student teaching experience in 3rd grade. I really had caught the travel bug after working at a summer camp that had a lots of international counselors teaching swim lessons with THIS view for many summers so I wanted to try and teach abroad.

Turns out that to teach in an English speaking country, you need 5 years of experience. So instead, I went to South Korea to teach English. It was a free plane ticket so I didn't ask too many questions. I probably should have done more research because the program I went with was geared toward Korean American/British/Australians who spoke Korean and we were placed in rural areas where no one spoke English. In the end I had an awesome time and learned I could really do ANYTHING.

When I got back, for the next 2ish Years  I wore a lot of hats trying to land my first full-time teaching job. In between everything I worked as a Sub in multiple districts including a SPED CO-OP.  I loved trying out and gaining a bunch of experience.

I started in Kindergarten. First as a 1:1 aide then, as I mentioned, giving Math and Reading Interventions, then working with students with Autism.  I would have never necessarily chosen the path I took, but I wouldn't take a second of it back. It was trying and difficult and out of my comfort zone. I had to learn how to have kids not cry when I talked in my normal voice. "Honey, Sweety, and Baby" became a part of my vocabulary. I learned how students with Autism operated. It made me understand the human condition that much more. I know that sounds deep, but I swear the world became clearer to me after seeing it through an Autism lens. I think every teacher should have work experience with students with Autism.

Then, after getting my Master's in Reading and a LBS1 certificate during this time, I landed my first teaching job 2 years ago. In MIDDLE SCHOOL! I had always wanted to teach Middle School. I LOVED middle school. I could be a social as I wanted. My 6th grade math teacher put it aptly, "Kerry, you'd talk to the Ants on the ground if they'd talk back!" I also had to schedule my lunch detentions because I was tardy from talking in the hallways during passing periods.

I was lucky enough to be chosen to work in a 1:1 technology district that is truly doing some amazing work with an under served demographic. This is where I met my mentor, Michelle! She taught 8th grade Reading and I taught 7th. She taught me so much, maybe everything! And, cough, I taught her how to be the best mentor!  

I taught 7th grade Reading For 1 year, which I loved, and then was asked to move to 6th grade Special Education. I have LOVED the move even more. I worked as a co-teacher allowing my students to access the curriculum right along side their peers, which is a great feeling. Being able to combine all my experiences to help students with varying needs is just AWESOME! Working in a district pushing the envelope nudged me again to get out of my comfort zone and here I am, blogging! For right now, I'm just enjoying the ride and trying to learn as much as possible.

I'm not sure how much phone or internet access I'll have after today so I might be out until Saturday! Happy 4th!

Big Time Blogging Challenge Day 6: Sweet Summer

This Summer = SAVE MONEY

So Instead I will talk about...

Previous Summers: 

In the last two summers, I have taken two amazing "dream-level" vacations. Last year we traversed Europe seeing London, Paris, Marseilles, Cannes, Nice, and Champagne France, Monaco, Milan, Italy, and Switzerland. The year before we saw the best of Southern California, starting in San Francisco, driving down the coast to Santa Barbra and then up to Yosemite National Park where we hiked Half Dome. My reward for the hike was a night in Napa Valley before returning home. Yes. I'm very spoiled, but maybe Gordon had a plan, woo me early with the dream vacations...Love him either way!

Overlooking Yosemite Valley. I had hiked that big thing lurking in the background the previous day and climbing the few steps up to where this picture is taken took me five minutes of groaning about how I can't bend my legs! 

How to keep me happy? Hike an hour, then stop for snacks! Then hike another hour and more snacks! Switzerland is really good for that! There is even a train to take you down the mountain, unlike the other picture above! 

Each past summer I have also stopped in Maine and worked as a camp counselor teaching swim lessons for a week to a few weeks to the whole summer! This is the first summer since 2006 I won't be there! I really miss camp and hope I can find something a little bit closer to home where I can still make an impact, perhaps with kids with special needs, AND play outside all day! Let me know if you have any leads near the western suburbs of Chicago!

So, in a way, this summer has been hard. Poor me, I know. Ha! Saving money is hard! But on the bright side, slowing down a bit  this summer has allowed me many opportunities. First to do this challenge, read some books and blogs, and just investigate and try new things that I would otherwise be too busy to even think about. Fiddling takes time! So this summer has been full of Professional development at it's finest with School work, cleaning work, and becoming an excellent chef!

In the meantime while Gordon and I are busy making small plans for the present and big plans for the future, we are trying to enjoy our weekends and extend them if possible! We spent time with family at a lake house for the 4th,  and there are plenty of wedding weekends past and present!

 I signed Gordon up for his first ever 5K on July 19th so we've been working on running! WEEEEE!!! Hopefully, I'll have a success picture to post!

 Lastly, if we find the time this summer, we hope to spend some time driving and camping around lake Michigan. Gordon did it as a kid and wants to show me how awesome it is. Too cute!

Just like life, summer is fleeting! I am trying to remind myself to look to the future but live in the moment and enjoy and remember how very lucky and blessed I am to be living my life each day.

Big Time Blogging Challenge - Day 4

My Family

I know I'm behind on topics but this one is an important one not to skip! 

Where to begin? I guess my fun all about me fact is that I always has handy and never has to think to hard about is that I'm at triplet. It's kind of cool being one and I joke all the time now that I'm going to have triplets some day! Hahha. Growing up I always had  a friend, whether they liked it and wanted to or not. Seeing as I have a German last name and my mom is 100% Irish, the compromise my parents made was that we'd all have Irish names. Kerry, William (Bill), and Erin. I am the oldest and we pretty much fit perfectly into the stereotypical roles of oldest, my brother as the jilted middle child, and my sister as the baby!

Now on to the love of my life, Gordon. We've been together for about 3 years. We met through mutual friends once, then a whole year later we met again and I wasn't going to let him get away a 2nd time! Now each family gathering is a new opportunity for my aunts to nag and pressure him about ring buying in creative ways! And I'm pressuring him that it's time for us to get a dog!! Soon for both!!! :) He's awesome, amazingly supportive, should win an some sort of patience award, funny, perfect etc! Loving every minute with him! 

Last but not least, my mom! She is the rock of our family and an all around great person. My sister likes to remind me that I'm becoming more and more like her everyday, first I roll my eyes and say absolutely not, but the more I think about it, it's probably not such a bad thing. She taught first grade on the South Side of Chicago, mostly first grade, for 38 years! She's been retired for two, and is loving retirement! And oops! Can't forget my mom's dog stubs! She even has her own twitter account @stubsoftheday (run by my sister) where you can get your fill off cuteness! 

BTBC Day 5

Topic: Favorite sports teams

Zero. 

When I was little I loved the Bulls, but I also thought it was normal that your sports team won every year. My parents would take us to Sox games, maybe because they grew up on the south side, and maybe because the tickets were cheap. When I was 10 I went to a game and for some reason fell in love with Frank Thomas and decided I wanted to marry him. I've since moved on.

Later, my brother turned out to be a Cubs fan so I would learn a fun fact or two about their current stats to help relate a bit more to him. I also liked that Kerry Wood, their pitcher for a few years, and I shared the same name.

I went to a small liberal arts college so not much team pride there. Goooooo TITANS!!!! I was a distance swimmer in college and my events were the 500, 1000 and 1650 free. These are the events that everyone leaves to get snacks for, or it's bathroom time. Sometimes they are run between sessions to an empty house. Thus, distance swimmers are all friends and we'd cheer each other on! Swimming as fast as you can for twenty straight minutes alone is not easy! We'd make our coach so mad encouraging and cheering on the "enemy"! Being a swimmer from age 6-22 and even coaching the little guys from time to time didn't improve my interest in sports. Ask me what Michael Phelps is up to or if Natalie Coglin ( I think that's how you spell it) qualified in something I'll have no idea.

However, I do love the bandwagon, I'll hop on and support and pretend to be interested. Most recently the Blackhawks and the World Cup.

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 I also love ANY excuse I can get to get together with my friends and eat snacks!

Every now and again we will go to a sporting event. Gordon and I took our moms to a Cubs game for Mother's Day and Gordon took me to the Bears game with tickets he got from work. But again, I'm more interested in where to obtain the peanuts and how best to get the hot dog guy's attention, than actually watching the game.

I think my lack of sports enthusiasm stems from my non-competitive nature. I just want everyone to have fun! If I can rig  a relay race when coaching so every team is a winner and can feel that success, I'm a happy coach!

The other day I was playing the game Clue, with some more competitive friends. I accidentally messed up a turn and essentially changed the outcome of the game by accident. We almost stopped playing the game we put an hour into because of this. Me though? Uhh... Just take another go? Skip me? It's the same? Free kick? Don't care.

I'm not sure how I feel about my own nonchalant demeanor. Competition can be healthy and encourage athletes to rise above ther own perceived abilities. For me through, the importance of competition lies in the comrardery of a team, working together to achieve a common goal and heightened work ethic.

How this translates into a classroom? Competition can get students excited and engaged but emphasizing the benefits of the process and not the outcome is my goal. If I can manage it, everyone that is a team player is a winner in Miss Sindewald's Room! 

Identity and Self Representation in the Digital Age

Identity and Self Representation in the Digital Age

Don't worry, that clever post title wasn't my creation. That was the the title of the first course I took in my undergraduate education. The class explored how we represent and/or change ourselves online especially people who took on new identities and had trouble deciphering digital from real life. In 2004 I thought it was a load of hogwash. My final paper, which I was immensely proud of, disputed the book central to the course, which I later found out was written by an acclaimed MIT professor, deservingly only received a B- . Now, the importance of Identity and self representation and controlling it online, rings more true to me every day.

Google: Search Engine to my Soul

Why do I find the internet to be such a scary place? Why am I so apprehensive? Because, get ready. There is only ONE of me. Go ahead, search my name. Ok. Don’t. I know you will anyway. But there is only me. Type me into google, type me in to twitter. Just Me. Maybe other family members will be dispersed throughout the search results with other people named Kerry, but mostly me. I just joined Vimeo to post a video, now that’s the top hit.

You can find me a few pounds heavier in a santa hat, at college friends’ weddings who sent the pictures in to the alumni magazine. You can learn about 5K’s I ran and my times for races I swam in college 5 years ago.  You can find out that I coach/ed for a swim teach called the Joliet Jets and that I’ve donated on behalf of friends to charities! GO ME!! You can figure out my previous employers and various educational websites I don’t remember joining. You can find my dad’s obituary.

I signed up for indulgy.com to get one cool PDF for teaching something or other. I think it is a knockoff of Pinterest, either way, I can’t delete myself from the website, and I don’t really like the name of the website. Indulgy? Ugh. Also, I have a MySpace??? SINCE WHEN!!!???

When I first signed up for Pinterest I didn’t realize that the default had google crawl your pins. Why had I joined Pinterest? To find low-cal margarita recipes for a summer party. How did I find out google was crawling my pins? Every now and again I will google myself for “safety”. Sure enough, the first hit was Kerry S pinned 5 low calorie, alcoholic drinks. Big Deal? Except when you teach Middle School and kids google your name more than they turn in their homework!  

I also can’t comment on public Facebook boards. There is my comment complaining about poor customer service for the whole world to see and judge me on.  Other people post to social media profiles and I feel like they might have an easier time. There are plenty of reasons to look people up on Social Media. YOU KNOW. Hmm… How many Tiffany Russells can there be? I don’t want the one it St. Petersburg Florida… Hmmm.  So even if Tiffany Russell is a horrible person who kicks dogs for fun, she is safe. Even typing that I feel bad, like I could get some Tiffany Russell out there in trouble. Yet, my low-cal margarita recipe could have me in hot water! I’m even still wary of letting friends of friends see my Facebook pictures, but I have to live a little! I’m relieved social media wasn’t around when I was a preteen/teenager. I am a shining example of why you should be able to control your digital footprint. I’m embarrassed by stuff I wrote/posted 5 years ago...when I was an ADULT!

Concluding Thoughts

I’m hyper afraid of being judged for simple things that are no big deal in my personal life making their way into my professional life and having a co-worker, parent, student or administrator make assumptions about my standing as a person and professional. Oh, I know I’m blowing this a little out of proportion, but when you live your life loudly, and there’s only one you, people are going to notice!

Join us! 

Big Time Blogging Challenge- Day 1

Challenge

Thanks to Michelle at Big Time Literacy for starting this challenge!

I have been off and on-but mostly off again blogging since 2008. Before Michelle put out this challenge, I had been contemplating blogging again. Recently, I had been reading, or tweeting, or saving various how-two, pointers, etc. for how to blog on the off chance that I might get motivated someday. Mona put it aptly in her tweet to me after I re-tweeted one too many blogging articles-"find my voice, my angle, and go!"

Then, Big Time Literacy started this challenge and I had zero excuses left. Yet, I'm still unsure. I always have plenty to say. I have a plenty loud voice, but I’m not sure what my “angle” is and why that matters.

Learning, Teaching, and Living Loudly

Why this blog title? I have always lived my life out LOUD. I've wished, and tried at points in my life to "be quieter", more reserved, and to blend in. Yet, despite any efforts to the contrary, I have a laugh you can hear anywhere in the building, a voice that carries down the hallway and a personality that transcends boundaries. I just love everyone! Living life loudly is not always easy. First, some people do not like loud. Second, my mistakes are heard loud and clear. Despite these drawbacks, living loudly has provided me many opportunities for professional and personal growth, leadership and making a difference in the lives of my friends, family, students and co-workers. So here I am on my own self-created stage, learning, reflecting, revising, and repeating, for all to hear. Living my life with good intentions, Loudly.

Previous Writing and Blogging Attempts

My first writing experience, my final semester of undergrad, that made me believe I could be a writer was an assignment to write my autobiography. Mine was titled: A Day, or Maybe a Couple of Days, in the life of Kerry: Sometime, and in no Particular Order. It was 40 pages in Microsoft word. Recap: Best stories from 4 years of college. I emailed it to all my friends and had a few copies printed out for the casual reader that came by.

My first blog titled “Kerry in Korea” was about an adventurous year overseas teaching English in the rural Korean countryside and traveling around a bit afterwards. Recap: After this, I can do anything. My 2nd blog, aptly named “Kerry in Kindergarten”, was about my year spent as an aide in three Kindergarten classrooms that each had 30 five-year-olds. That equals 90 five year olds! The recap: Lots of cuteness, teacher gossip, and cleaning up bodily fluids. My last spin off, "Just Kerry" contained a few posts about a year spent in a self contained autism classroom. Recap: Bruises and Bodily fluids.

While re-telling stories about just barely beating a 65 year old man while dressed as a swimming super hero in a Halloween 5K, culture shock, the case of the phantom pooper and about a student I code-named “pinchy”, could at times make for interesting, entertaining or even hilarious commentary, that’s where it ended. These were the types of stories that you could tell over and over at the water-cooler, dinner table, or family party when you run out of other more important things to talk about. Even though I had the best of intentions when writing and thought carefully about what I wrote, I was also always worried about having a laugh about school things in a public place. What if the phantom pooper’s mom reads this blog (with 3 followers)? Whose expense is a laugh for? I still wonder who cares what I have to say and where is the public/personal line? Who cares about my thoughts on my personal writing journey? There are no takebackskies on the internet and I want what I put other here in the future to have no uncertainty about it’s quality and value.

Blogging Take Two Four

I’ve been told I could be a stand-up comedian on more than a few occasions. (REALLY!) Yet, besides the fact that my in-person joke/story presentation is horrendous, I don’t really want to be a comedian. I like sharing and storytelling, but I want to teach, influence, and make an impact, (all while having an awesome time). In each of my previous blogging attempts, I was the observer, recording what I saw around me and describing what happened TO me. Even if I don’t yet know what my “angle” is with this challenge, I think I do know that I want whatever I end up writing about to engage and contribute to a bigger idea. I know I need this purpose to keep me going. My posts can still be funny, but I want my posts to involve, motivate, or intrigue others. I’m not sure how I’ll get there. I’m not sure how interesting or helpful I’ll be. My goal is to take Michelle’s challenge and go from there. I explained the challenge to my boyfriend, G, and I was having a hard time convincing myself, let alone him, that I could make it the whole month! Yet, here’s to DAY 1!

Join The Challenge!