Guess who has a Twitter account!!! This guy!
I wasn't sure if I'd like it or not, and as it turns out, I love it. I'm semi-addicted, especially during this month of July when college basketball recruiting is in full force. I can follow all the premier scouts, all the local Big Ten teams insiders, as well as the national talking heads. I feel "in the know" way more than I used to. I know instantly who's offered, who's committed, and who's watching who at what tournament. If you're like Grace ("You know more about teenage boys than someone your age should"), I'm wasting my life, but I look at it as a convenient way to enjoy one of my hobbies/passions.
Thing is, I don't actually "tweet". Seriously, what important things do I have to say?
But that got me thinking at the beach over the weekend. What if we all got Twitter accounts? What a great way to stay connected long distance...it would be like a never-ending chat. I know we have the blogs, and we text and phone, but it'd be cool to have a place to talk about a sports play, post thoughts on some current event, post a link to an interesting story, or call Kevin stupid.
What do you think?
~Mikey D
My how time flies. This upcoming school year will be my 5th, and with that it will already be time for me to renew my teaching certificate (you have to do it every 5 years). On the last day of school I got a letter in my mailbox telling me as much, and to check to make sure I had the necessary requirements for renewal. So I did.
As a teacher, they want to see professional growth. They want to see you make an effort to become better. I figured, through my own ignorance, I did that by earning my Maser's and 8 CPD (Continuing Professional Development) credits (like graduate credits for teachers) during my first five years. Many of my colleagues said I was good to go. There was just one sticking point that I found: Required reading courses.
Apparently I need to have 12 reading credits logged (I can do 6 now, and 6 the next five years), but I have zero. For most teachers, the undergrad and grad reading courses they took in college count as these reading credits, and therefore they do not have to worry about them. But being that I went to school out of state, my transcripts don't specifically say "Reading Class", so therefore my district won't accept my previous credits earned (As I write this I'm staring at a pile of reading books from college! Proof, dammit!).
So I have zero reading credits. I teach math, I have a Masters, and I've shown professional growth by attending numerous workshops for CPD credit. And now I will be enrolling at the local community college to take a reading course with elementary reading teachers and paraprofessionals. They will say things like, "What reading lesson did you teach today?" And I will say things like, "I don't teach reading, I teach math". They'll follow up with a, "But then why are you here?" type question, and of course the smart-ass in me will say, "Because learning about elementary reading will make me a better middle school math teacher." They will look at me weird, I'll shrug my shoulders, and life will go on. It is what it is.
Sigh, my first class starts on the 12th. Trying to care will be hard.
~Mikey D
