A little about me....

 A little about me...

Photo credit: Blog Author

Hi new classmates! My name is Jess Daniels and I am excited to be taking this class to learn a bit more about how social media impacts student learning. I have definitely seen the pros and cons of social media use concerning  my students, especially when I was teaching middle school.  I apologize if you've heard this introductory story before, but here we go....

My 9ish year long teaching career has been full of ups and downs and started off in a pretty unusual fashion. When I was signing up for my student teaching placement at Illinois State University back in 2010, I saw the option to teach abroad for half of my practicum. Although at 22 I had never been on a plane, I jumped at the chance to move across the pond for three months to experience another country's educational system/culture. That sneaky travel bug is relentless, and after three months in England and a few months of subbing in the Chicagoland area, I moved across the world to Seoul, South Korea to start what would become a seven(ish) year teaching career in Asia. I stayed in Seoul for a year, teaching just about every subject imaginable, and then moved to Denver to be with my partner at the time. After a few months, I soon realized that I was not yet done with teaching in Asia (it's hard to give up the respect paid to teachers) and I went to an international school job fair at UNI in Iowa. I was ecstatic to receive a middle school social studies and language arts position in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam--which is where I stayed from 2013-2019 (with a few months teaching in Thailand peppered in). 

In August of 2019, I was reluctant to teach in an American classroom full time but eventually accepted a fourth grade position in a district that would turn out to be soul crushing. I worked at the same school for two years, 1 1/2 of those years being in the pandemic. My fears, and so much worse, were realized while I was working in this school and as such, I am taking the current year off of teaching and am unsure if I will ever be in the classroom full time again. I love my students and in fact, I just visited two of my kiddos from last year this past weekend, but I have no desire to be subjected to the lack of respect, pay, or terrible treatment that I (and many of my teacher friends) experience today. 

I currently work part time at Dominican and part time as a waitress. I am trying to carve out a path that allows me to maintain my mental health in a way that was simply not possible at my last job. My last school put me into a dual language position knowing that I was not yet qualified, so I started my ESL endorsement back in 2020 and will be done with my MAED in late June. I wanted to complete my Master's in case I ever find the right fit in terms of a school, but for now I am enjoying a much less stressful existence. 

Photo credit: Blog Author

Social Media 

Like most people, I have a very love hate relationship with social media. I can often be found deleting my Instagram one second and redownloading it the next. Since I lived abroad for so many years, I use Facebook messenger to connect with my friends around the world, but deactivated my Facebook in the midst of the pandemic. At the beginning of the pandemic, I created a Facebook group called "Breath of Fresh Air," which was a page designated for posting pictures and videos that would cheer people up. It ended up being popular amongst my friends and their connections, but I ended up deactivating Facebook because during the pandemic, posting anything just seemed...strange to me? I felt guilty posting at times, guilty when I didn't post. So, I decided to eradicate that feeling all together. I still use Instagram but I set a timer and often try not to use it. 

When I was teaching in Saigon, I created a teacher Instagram account so that my students could keep in touch with me and/or check out cool projects from the day/week. I still have that account and will occasionally post to keep contact with my students. 

As a teacher and human, I am very invested in social justice and try to make my social media accounts reflective of that. I strive to be a teacher that creates safe spaces for my students, both in the classroom and online.