If you haven't seen the viral video "Gangnam Style," then you are missing out. Not only will you feel awkward at parties when all of your friends know how to ride an invisible horse to a techno beat, but you are also clearly never on the internet and, as such, either have lots of real-time friends or no friends at all. In the latter case, don't worry about it.
The great thing about "Gangnam Style," if you can quantify such a delicious atrocity as anything like Great, is that it has all of the essential elements of a viral video. It is the meta-viral video. It a) takes itself just seriously enough, b) involves something that everyone can agree is pretty much wonderful (invisible horse dancing), and c) every single, last person in the video is absolutely committed to what is going on. You know music video love is real when you can mime lassoing a calf in synchronicity.
My first few weeks of teaching have also been a lot like "Gangnam Style," in that they, like a viral video, seem to have happened overnight. When I started work at New Tech Odessa, my principal warned me that every day I would "wake up running," meaning that every day is a very productive race. At the Olympics. But, as a first year teacher, I'm not so much concerned anymore about the level of work that NTO demands as I am of the fact that, for the first time in six years, I am working somewhere from 7:00 in the morning to 6:00 at night; that's if you don't count the hours of prep work I do at home. It's not unusual for a teacher, but it's unusual for a former career student. In fact, everything about teaching in a public high school is unusual.
At the end of last week, I started getting a little down. There's no downtime on this job; there's not even time to sit back at your desk and grade (it feels like there's barely enough time to take attendance). I felt like I was panicking-- like I had become so overwhelmed by my day-to-day routine that I just didn't know what to do at any given moment.
But then I had a talk with one of my co-workers, one of the most compassionate people I've ever worked with. She told me that I was stronger than I knew and that I would be stronger on the other side of this year. She also said, "If you need anything from me, anything at all... let me know. I'm here for you."
And everything changed.
The next day, my students were really working.... REALLY WORKING. They were being responsible, they were being ultra-respectful, my rowdiest students were working furiously in the common area, they were asking for more learning, they were learning what I hoped they would, and it all came together. These last two days, I got a glimpse of what my time at NTO is going to be like. I got a glimpse of what NTO IS. And it's good.
The New Tech way of teaching and learning needs to go viral. New Tech Odessa needs to go viral. Because we are allowed to have fun; because the students are allowed to take themselves just seriously enough to do great things. Because we are doing something that actively and interactively creates real learning in both the students and facilitators; this kind of education should be happening in every school, everywhere. Because we, every last one of us, is absolutely devoted and committed to creating a New Tech family for our learners and facilitators.
When that co-worker passed on that kindness to me, it was like she was pressing the "Share" button on her favorite video. It was as if she was giving me insight into what she wants education to look like-- that compassion should be shared by every New Tech Network facilitator and learner until the rest of the world has no choice but to stand up and take notice. If we can create kindness and empathy in every level of education, the global community in which we live and interact will be that much better by extension. I've already witnessed that first-hand.
Although if we really want to go viral, I think we'll need Rebecca Black in on this.
Love how facilitator collaboration builds a supportive community for learners AND facilitators. Our facilitators understand that we must model what we want our learners to experience, so we have a lot fun, work really, really hard, and care about each other in a very real way.
ReplyDeleteKristen, thanks for sharing the blog post. It is very encouraging to know others out there are loving what they do (even that is expressed through riding invisible horses...maybe because is it express through riding invisible horses).
Loving the New Tech Network and all of the awesomeness that is wrapped up in it.
@ryansteuer
New Tech apex
Indianapolis