Sunday, September 8, 2013

Finally, My First Entry

I am sitting here watching Sunday Night Football and I finally decided to create my own blog and finally get my thoughts out of my head.  I am have been writing journal entries in Microsoft Word and just saving them. Some of those will end up here; others will be left in Word or deleted.

Road trip out to Jackson Hole, Wy.
Summer of 2013
Let me introduce myself.  My name is David and I am a teacher in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This school year, that started last week ,will be my 7th year as a teacher. I have taught numerous social studies classes but I have found my passion in AP US History (APUSH).  Outside of school, I am married to a very loving wife who allows me to spend way too much time at school some days.  When we have spare time we are both chasing our 2 year old son around the house.  I also give up a lot of family time in the winter because I have the opportunity to coach our high school hockey team.  My family, school, and athletics take up a lot of my time.  When I have free time I try to spend as much time as possible with my wife.



I love my job! Education is the family business and I cannot picture myself having a job/career outside of the field of education.  I will argue that the 7 hours that our students are at school are the most important part of their day. We have that time to teach, lead, and guide them, so I cannot waste their time with so called "busy work."  I want to be able to have assignments and projects that make my students think and not just regurgitate information.  The days of recalling basic information are over in East 38 (my classroom at Forest Hills Northern).   That is why I flipped my classroom in the fall of 2011.  This allowed me to have more face to face time with my students and has allowed me to create meaningful learning that is based on skills rather than content.  If your curious what the "Flipped Classroom" is check out this link. http://bit.ly/wq3U3H


There are a few things that have allowed me to change my teaching style. First, my mentor teachers when first started teaching. Both Judy Walton (@fhpscoach) and Lori Rohen have played an instrumental role in my teaching career. Their guidance and support has had a huge impact on me. I cannot thank them enough. Second, Twitter has been my best professional development.  Twitter is not just about social media. I have
been able to learn a lot through my PLN on Twitter.  If you have never been on Twitter give it a chance. I follow numerous educators and hashtages like #flipclass, #sschat, #MichEd. People on Twitter are more than willing to help because we are all trying to get better at our profession. The last thing that has played a huge role on my profession has been attending conferences with like-minded people. I have attended numerous EdCamps in Grand Rapids and Holland, Mi and being able to attend #FlipCon13 in Stillwater, Mi. These events have opened my eyes to new teaching strategies and tech tools and will work in my classroom.

My goal is to keep this blog up to date and add an entry every few days. 

David
@davidfouch