Monday, April 26, 2010

Letter from an Old Friend


The recent events in South Hadley have really shaken the educators in this town, the parents, and community as a whole. The teachers and administrators that I work with are all dedicated professionals that truly care about the well being of all their students. Is there room for change in South Hadley and school districts throughout this country? YES!! I hope to be part of that change by dedicating myself to MORE extensive cyberbullying curriculum, participating in the Anti - Bullying Task force, and hopefully working a cyberbullying professional development presentation for educators.

I was really affected by the negative attacks from the media, blogs, forums, and social network sites that were attacking the education system where I have worked for the last 10 years. I as well as my colleagues have dedicated our lives to our profession and do it to the best of our ability and to hear what I did really shook me up. I do not believe that the teachers at the high school are any different than any other school in this country. I have done extensive professional development presentations throughout the country and have never found the teachers in South Hadley to have any less professionalism that those from other districts.

I recently received a letter from a student that I had 10 years ago when I was teaching my first class. It came at the most opportune moment in my life. I needed a real kick in the butt to put what I am doing back in perspective. I need to move forward with my teaching keep making changes where they need to be made and never forget that I am here for the students not the Boston Herald, the Springfield Republican, the local news stations, nasty blogs, or the MassLive forums.

Here is the letter I received that has put my career back into perspective after all the events here in South Hadley. I have changed some names so that they do not get targeted by some of the negative people who do not want to see any good in people.

Hey Ms. Manzi!



Okay so the end of the semester is approaching and it’s now time to get on the extra credit band wagon. The basic idea of the assignment is to contact someone that you would like to thank for their support as a mentor in your life and you are most certainly someone that came into mind! I’ll attached the assignment and if you’re cool with it that’s great! So here it goes.

It’s been just about 10 years since I had you for a teacher in the sixth grade and in many ways I remember it just like it was yesterday. I can appreciate looking back at those years now (especially now that I have just seen M go through the same process). It’s a time in your life where you are really defining who you are. When I look back at my friends at the time and the different places life has brought us all I cannot be thankful enough to be where I am today. Although I am still only in college I would like to think I have learned a little about life up until this point. What I have learned is that life is a team effort (we can’t do it on our own!) and it is through the choices we make, our experiences (good and bad), and most importantly the people in our lives that shape the people we are and the people we want to become. When you get ready to go to high school there are many paths you can take but generally there is a good path and a bad path.

I would like to think that I took the good path whether it has been graduating sixth in my class, being a junior in the Isenberg School at Umass, being involved on campus, or just being a good influence on my little sister. Where did this road start for me?...the sixth grade in your class.Up until the sixth grade I did not see myself as a smart person. I had stayed back in kindergarten and just wasn't the fastest student. I also believe at the time the sixth grade was the first year you actually received letter grades. What I learned about myself is that maybe I had to study a little bit longer than the naturally smart kids, but hey I could get the same As they were getting. I also realized that you could be the smartest person in the world but if you were lazy and didn't do the assignments you weren't going to get an A.

It was then that I told myself I would study a little harder and do all my assignments and do them well. I did well in your class and having you as a teacher really helped build my confidence because for the first time I remember having a teacher that believe in me even if I didn't believe in myself. I’m blessed to say that my experience with you as my teacher would not end there. I won the lottery and you became the technology teacher! This also meant I could sneak to the lab during the last 25 minutes of school to just hangout and talk about life. Like so many kids these days my family life was dysfunctional to say the least and to be able to have someone at school that I trusted and could confide is what made the difference for me. I am sure that it is extremely difficult to be a teacher in the South Hadley public school system with everything that is going on right now, but I hope South Hadley (and at this point the rest of the world) knows that it is teachers like you that are true assets to the town and to the students. I could go on and on for days, but in short I just wanted to say thank you. Thank you for being my teacher, thank you for being my sister’s teacher, thank you for being my mentor, and thank you for being my friend.



Forever grateful,

Jesse

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Is online activity worth the loss of your privacy?

When I decided to write about my WLS experience a lot of people were surprised that I would do it on a public place like a blog. However, when I was researching the whole process I found a lot of very useful information from blogs. I enjoy reading about the trials and tribulations that people have gone through and overcome. I also have found some amazing ideas from many blogs. If you have a blog you want to share please leave your link in the comments section.

One concern that I had was the nasty people in the world that would attack me because they enjoy going on the internet and hurting people. This actually just happened to me with a blog concerning a topic in our schools.


I have really enjoyed being able to communicate with people via the internet and try to keep my online identity as respectful as my offline self. I started out using social networking sites to learn what my students were so interested in now I use them for my own personal enjoyment and education.

I do not friend any students on Facebook. That to me is personal and I do not want to encourage kids to use a site that has an age restriction. Facebook has allowed me to keep in touch with so many of my friends from the past and family members. I also have been able to make many professional contacts using this site.


Twitter is another cool site that I have been using. This site has allowed me to follow a lot if different types of people that have similar interests as me. I have found some amazing new educational ideas from my tweets, WLS ideas and questions answered, social contacts made (WMTweetup), and much more. At some point I will open my twitter account to the public but at this point I can not because obnoxious people keep posting it on thier blog.


I started blogging a few years ago because I thought it would be a way to improve my terrible writing skills and share some of my thoughts and ideas. I guess it is not too bad because some of my stuff appears in the Masslive entertainment section and I am getting a few more followers each day to this blog.


I will continue to share my thoughts with people who are interested. I only hope that the people that are using my online identity as a tool for hurting me and where I work understand that what they are doing to me is just another form of bullying. I will not stop any of my activities because of the actions of a few sad individuals.