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.
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