SemicolonEDU

Last month I took a bold step in my life. I joined two of my education heroes Joe Mazza and Nicholas Perazanno and got inked. My semicolon tattoo will serve as a constant reminder of how damaging my depression had been, that it is always with me, and that others; parents, students, and colleagues may be going through what I went through in the past eight years.

 

Our health is important, but oftentimes people are dismissive of or downright ignorant of mental health issues. When people found out about me having problems with anxiety and depression, they usually responded in one of three ways, they empathazie and share their own story, they are empathetic but don’t know what they should do, or they shrug and blow me off as lazy and possibly require too much maintenance to be worth building a relationship with.

The thing is nobody wants depression. I wish every day that I could be cured and life would go back to the way it was before anxiety and depression entered my life. Unfortunately, depression cannot be cured. I am fortunate though that medication has helped as well as doing something I am passionate about, teaching and learning at a Catholic high school.

Depression can make life really suck. When I learned about #SemicolonEDU I knew that I had to become involved. My advice to others dealing with depression or anxiety is to see a doctor and get the proper medication. Also, make sure that you do some research about how depression works. For those living with someone who struggles with depression or anxiety, be patient! Don’t think that they are just being lazy if they can’t get out much. Always love that person and know that they are trying to deal with mental health as best they can. Love can conquer all.

Knowledge: Easy Come, Easy Go

Knowledge about educational psychology, educational technology, relationship building, and being able to implement sound pedagogy are all essential tools for helping a teacher to be successful. So why then do many teachers appear to either lack one or more of these skills or they lack the time and energy to research these topics? Why do some teachers appear to be so skilled and competent, whereas I feel like I can never consume enough research or learn enough about my students to just keep my head above water?

I know that most teachers believe that what they teach is very important for our kids to know for success in life, but do these same teachers truly believe that kids will actually remember what they were teaching decades later? The only thing I can recall from my high school chemistry class is that the chemical equation (if that’s even the proper term) is C6 H12 O6. Most of the material from high school geometry and algebra is either very deeply buried in my subconscious or lost because I haven’t had to use it for quite some time. Heck, maybe I’m literally losing my mind because much of what I learned in college geography and earth science has been lost to the ages. And I majored in geography with an earth science minor!

  
There is an old saying I recall, “it’s like riding a bike.” The saying is meant to convey the idea that anything learned can be easily recalled just as if you have not rode a bike in a few years you will be able get back on a bike and ride it any way because you learned to do it at one time. Well, I beg to differ. I think that the mind begins to let go of ideas, concepts, and information after they have not been used in quite some time and this is much different from learned psychomotor skills. Although, muscles that are not used do tend to retard or even atrophy over time.

The question for this teacher is which happens quicker, the loss of learned ideas, concepts, and information or the loss of psychomotor skills OR were the ideas, concepts, and information ever fully understood? I guess I need to do more research.