Please consider 

VOTING DAILY UNTIL 

OCTOBER 27, 2013

"Limeaids for Learning" project through Donorschoose.org and Sonic.

Your VOTE will help my weekly totals!

SONIC will use these totals to fund classroom projects. 

Your support will directly impact my STUDENT'S 

as well as students, parents and teachers around 

the country and around the WORLD.

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THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!!!

Michael Hayes

 YOUTUBE  •  FACEBOOK  • TWITTER  • CAFEPRESS

Preparing for a NEW YEAR....

It's about 5:45pm on Thursday evening. I am blogging while sitting in my classroom after finalizing a few things here and there awaiting next week when a new group of students will be walking through my doors.

I am very excited about the new year and meeting new students. I have a lot happening this year as I too am going back to school! Yep, if you read my first blog "Looking Back and Moving Ahead" from May 10, 2013 you will quickly find out that my intentions of going to college after high school was not even on the target, and look at me... AGAIN! I am going back for my Masters in Educational Leadership and my goal is to finish in two years. So this Fall I am enrolled in 9 hours back at my Alma Mater, West Texas A&M University, and I am looking forward to the experience!

I worked very hard over the summer preparing lessons to go with some of my videos for the Texas A&M University System to be utilized on their PACT (Performance Based Academic Coaching Teams) website. It was an honor to be selected to provide content and lessons which will now be used by 1/3 of the new teachers across the state of Texas. I am very proud to be a part and I truly hope my joy of teaching children a love for learning and providing them life skills will be the biggest aspect they glean from the resources. If I can inspire just ONE teacher to do what ever it takes to make a positive impact with the students they teach, the effort will be worth everything.

I am hoping to generate some exciting new video content that will move beyond my classroom this year as I will be producing some new videos outside of my specific content in the 8th grade. I am challenging myself with broadening my Youtube Channel with content spanning 6th - 12th grade. There is a BIG reason for this and that is, I want students to see I still support them once they have moved beyond my classroom, I want those yet to see me as their teacher to know that I am excited for their learning, no matter if they are currently my student or not. I want them to be the STARS of their learning and I want that represented when they see themselves on a video lesson.

This year I hope viewers will see more "Real Life" content beyond my classroom to compliment a new series of videos I am developing, "Science Is All Around Us". Two such videos that fit this category are "Science in Dentistry" and "Mr. Hayes Visits the Caribbean". I shot video this Summer of the Hoover Dam, the Grand Canyon, a Solar Panel Array in Las Vegas, Wind Farms & the Arizona Meteor Crater. These clips as well as an upcoming shoot I will be doing in Albuquerque, New Mexico this Fall during the Balloon Fiesta will all be incorporated into content specific videos over energy production, energy transformation, catastrophic events and erosion.


I am really encouraging my students this year to take part in my 9:00 Science Challenge on Facebook during the evenings this year. Many students last year made it a FAMILY TIME, and WOW what a difference it made for those that participated. Over 200 prizes were awarded and the competition was AWESOME. Students are engaged and eager to learn in this Social Media component. The fact so many parents are joining in encourages them and makes learning fun and something to look forward to each evening.

Nearly 90% of my content is already posted to my YouTube channel so, this year I am already hitting the ground running. The students are going to have so much fun learning this year, they may just forget they are in school. It is going to be an AWESOME YEAR. So any of my students reading this... GET READY, because I am ready to TEACH MY HEART OUT!!!


Michael Hayes

I will be adding a professional broadcast quality camera this year to my video equipment. The cost can be challenging so if anyone reading would like to help donate to help me fund the AUDIO aspect of this camera's capabilities, there is still time. You can assist with any size donation, and I can promise it will be put to great use. CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION.

Make a direct impact to students with YOUR support....

BIG NEWS!!!

Hey folks, have you seen directly or indirectly the benefits of Mr. Hayes' YouTube Science? I am very excited to announce a few great things that are happening. The first I want to share is I have written a proposal to donorschoose.org for a grant to add professional audio equipment to enhance the quality of all future videos. The lessons I am providing are helping parents, teachers and fellow educators not just at Highland Park but around the globe.

YOU CAN HELP, and during the next SEVEN DAYS, the board of directors at donorschoose.org have indicated they will match DOLLAR FOR DOLLAR any donations that are submitted toward my project. I would sincerely appreciate any donations toward this goal. I have spent hundreds of dollars personally on equipment and software to provide the resources needed for recording and editing. Your assistance in helping fund upgraded professional equipment would make huge impacts for future videos.

It's SIMPLE, just go to the following link:
http://www.donorschoose.org/we-teach/1879219.19859336

Enter the code INSPIRE and your donation will be matched dollar for dollar up until July 23rd (My wedding anniversary)

Donors will receive back a personal thank you from me and my students this Fall.

Additional news I would like to share is first year teachers in Texas along with their mentor teachers will have access to 17 of my video lessons as well as printable lesson plans to accompany the videos. They will be hosted on the Texas A&M University PACT (Professional-academic Coaching Teams) website. Any teacher using the PACT website will have immediate access.

I am also in the works to receive assistance to purchase upgraded professional video equipment from Canon and other charitable organizations.

Please be a part and help in funding my project for professional audio equipment at the above link. Feel free to share this opportunity with friends and family on Facebook and through other forms of social media.

I would be happy to answer any comments or posts you may make. If you are a STUDENT, PARENT or TEACHER, please make a comment on this post to share the benefits you may have received through Mr. Hayes' YouTube Science.

YOU can help make it happen!!!
Your generosity will directly impact the education of a child's life.

Thanks for your consideration,

Mike Hayes

YOUTUBE: www.youtube.com/hpisdhayes
FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/hpisdhayes
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/hpisdhayes

Teaching in an atmosphere of excellence:

As I attended the Highland Park ISD School Board meeting tonight in Amarillo, Texas it revealed a view of a slightly opened window ready to be completely raised in the very near future. I have no doubt that the path Highland Park is currently on is breathing life of excellence and opportunity for the student's and staff.

Tonight I became immediately aware of something I have been seeing for the past number of years, and that is a taste of opportunity and challenges for the student's who are realizing their dreams that education, hard work and determination can provide. To highlight a few of these items:

• Quinlin McGregor, Class of 2013, won THREE STATE CHAMPIONSHIP titles in track and signed a letter of intent with a full-ride scholarship to Stephen F. Austin University.

• Lance Mullens, Class of 2013, was awarded the Gates Melinium Scholarship one of 1,000 awarded exceeding $50,000 for his future education. Over 58,000 applications were submitted to apply for the award.

• We are honored to have FOUR CLASS of 2013 SENIORS, Lance Mullens, William Brooks, Myles Smith & BreAnn Hobbs receive their Dual Degrees from both High School and Amarillo College within a week of each other.

• The Ag & FFA department under the direction of Mrs. Crystal Stewart has seen great successes in livestock and other affiliated competitions turning the heads of many of the schools across the state also providing for Full-Ride scholarships to some participating students.

• This week I was pleased to be contacted by the Texas A&M University System in conjunction with the Texas Education Agency requesting to host 15 of my YouTube Science videos on their PACT website to assist new teacher's across Texas with resources for lesson planning and hands on education.

There are truly too many things to recall from memory that were presented today, it was impossible get all of them down, I should have brought a note pad. It was difficult to avoid feeling the  energy in the air of the great things that are happening in Highland Park. I am so eager for the future of the students, there is truly a quickly rising feeling of internal motivation rising up in the students and staff. If Highland Park is not currently on the radar of the educational system in the state, it very quickly will be. In my past ten years of teaching, I have yet to see the energy and dedication that is rising up in our district. 

Great things are on the horizon and I am truly honored and blessed to be in such a time and place as this. The demands on education and students have never been greater, and yet we are rising quickly to meet the challenges that are presented. I believe if this generation could learn the lessons of the past in our country that perseverance, hard work, dedication, responsibility and meeting demanding challenges are embraced we are in for a new frontier of greatness to sweep our country.

What motivates the spirit within us is not the lack of our ambition or the minimal amount of effort, but rather the joy that comes with a challenge that is met with determination and sacrifice to see the efforts of  a job well done or attempted. Even in those attempted works of motivation when the expectation is not quite met and failure seems to be the outcome, we have learned from our mistakes and grown from them, this concept develops within us "wisdom". There is something about what has always made America great, and there continues to be signs in our youth and this generation that continues to give me great hope.

What an awesome night of excellence for our students and staff.

Michael Hayes

RELATED BLOG LINKS:
https://tap.tarleton.edu/pact/
http://amarillo.com/sports/high-school-sports/2013-05-11/triple-crown
http://amarillo.com/news/local-news/2013-05-10/hpisd-seniors-earn-dual-degrees

Keep up with Mr. Hayes
http://www.youtube.com/hpisdhayes
http://www.facebook.com/hpisdhayes
https://twitter.com/hpisdhayes

The Video Lesson that Started it All

Looking Back and Moving Ahead

How taking a small idea has changed the way I will forever teach...

I have been waiting for the right moment to actually begin a "blog" to accompany my already existing YouTube, Facebook & Twitter Accounts and today is the day for a few reasons. There are a few things developing behind the scenes that I will be sharing in the future, but the biggest reason is because I want a place to post blogs and updates as these developments take place and to encourage other educators to pursue their passion of teaching in a new way to better facilitate the learning of today's tech savvy students.

Here is a little bit about my background as I begin diving into this first of many blogs to come.
I never imagined I would be a teacher, and yet with ten years in the classroom I am more passionate then ever being a mentor and teacher of today's students. I love what I do, and the technological opportunities available to today's teacher's, if embraced correctly, can breath new life into the teaching profession and spur the minds of today's students in a great and positive way.

To be honest, I never had a desire to be an educator or even attend post secondary education. My only goal in junior high and high school was to "GET OUT"!

I was diagnosed with dyslexia in the late 1970's when very few schools, administrators or teachers were even aware of how or what the learning disability was, let alone how to serve students struggling with the reading and comprehension issues that accompany the diagnosis. At that time my parent's were unable to find resources in the school district I was attending to facilitate student's with dyslexia. They chose to move to a small town about fifteen miles outside of the city to a 1A school district in the hopes of having a smaller school environment that could better work with the challenges I was facing. As the year's progressed my desire to read and keep up with my peers faded and the challenges I faced in the classroom were soon dismissed and I was labeled as lazy and inattentive. In short, I did what I needed to do to "pass" and move from grade to grade, nothing more. The only motivation I had was to graduate and put any further educational ambitions in my rear view mirror as my ambitions were squelched.

It wasn't until a very early marriage at the age of 19 and a new lifestyle of poverty with very little opportunity that led me to go "BACK TO SCHOOL". As I pondered this option, I reflected upon my High School days to consider what avenue to take. The only class that I looked forward to was my Journalism classes where I excelled in photography, cartooning, reporting and writing. I remained attentive and developed a range of talents through the guidance of my teacher. She provided me with a freedom to develop a passion she saw in me and I excelled in the three years I was on staff. I enrolled in Texas State Technical College and received my associate's degree in Commercial Art and Advertising two years later. Immediately I landed a job designing and painting billboards for a local outdoor advertising company. My career journey moved me into computer graphic design for a local food retailer and eventually starting my own small advertising agency for seven years. A loss of a large client to my firm as well as ever evolving technology quickly changed the dynamics of my business. I chose to once again "GO BACK TO SCHOOL", this time if I was going back, I was going to make it BIG, I wanted to get a Medical Degree as an Orthopedic Pediatrician in the hopes of providing surgical relief to children in poverty in the United States as well as children in third world countries.

As I enrolled in West Texas A&M University, I was on my way and competing at the top of my class with other pre-med undergraduates to insure a GPA high enough to apply to Medical School. As my senior year at WTAMU approached, I had to face a different reality. I had to sell my business at a tremendous loss and ended up with an overhanging loan that would take the next three years to pay off. I approached the Education Department at WTAMU, my thought was I have a TON of Science classes under my belt, would it be possible for me to graduate on time and receive a teaching certificate. After looking at my remaining credits to graduate everything fit like a puzzle, I could fulfill the education requirements with remaining elective credits and still receive my degree in Biology. Truly an unexpected blessing as teaching quickly turned into my PASSION and I am honored to be a teacher.

So the follow up to this mini-autobiography, my biggest challenge in teaching over the past ten years has been how to reach the student's who were like me in school. How do I make a positive difference in the future of student's who have learning disabilities, how can I provide the help needed by at-risk students, how can I get students' to see a better future for themselves, how can I instill a love of learning to those who have no ambition or aspersions in life? What does it take to effect generations of students who want everything NOW without the work ethic needed to insure their success? What does it take to provide a bigger window of the world to student's who's own family is in poverty or are in horrible home situations that are beyond the imagination? How do I catch up student's who have HUGE gaps in their learning or have been moving in and out of different school districts all of their life?

I have been seeking the magic remedy since I started my teaching career only to find the best advice of other colleagues, administrators and professional development workshops and trainings could never provide me the level of intervention I was seeking. The solution came on August 31, 2011 with my first YouTube video to assist student's in learning lab equipment without having the equipment at home (featured above this blog). I thought I was just helping my student's until a comment on my video posted from an educator in Costa Rica who utilized my video to assist Spanish speaking lab technicians with the correct English terms of the equipment. The ball was rolling and I had no idea what would evolve from this point forward.

(To be continued...)

Michael Hayes

Please continue to check back on my blog installments as I will follow up the discussion of the evolution of "The Expanded Classroom"  

www.youtube.com/hpisdhayes
www.facebook.com/hpisdhayes
https://twitter.com/hpisdhayes