Today's guest blog is brought to you by a middle school Project Lead The Way teacher, author of Educational Eye Exam, and a passionate advocate for innovative, student-centered learning--Alicia Ray. With 18+ years in education, she brings deep experience in edtech, including VR, AI, and gamification. A former digital learning facilitator, school librarian, and gifted education facilitator, Alicia now focuses on leveraging educational technology while keeping human connection at the heart of her classroom.

Take it away, Alicia!

Guest Blog by Alicia Ray

Request a Change

A year can feel like an eternity. Every February, my district sends out a request for Letters of Intent: are we staying or going? This is our opportunity as educators to request a change in teaching assignments for the following year. For many years, my Letter of Intent stated that I was content where I was and looked forward to another year of being a school librarian and digital learning coach. As I took on more and more hats (as many of us do in education), I found myself feeling more and more worn down. More and more discontent with my role. I found myself losing my passion and purpose in education. I was not a lot of fun to be around either.

The last time that happened was 2018, and I started #DBC50Summer, a summertime commitment to read and implement at least one thing from each of DBC, Inc.’s first 50 books! It was a true journey and changed my entire outlook on education. It reignited a fire that I had not realized was merely simmering as warm coals. This journey was also the kindling of a new kind of fire - Educational Eye Exam: Creating Your Vision for Education. In Educational Eye Exam, I mention that if this feeling of discontent and lack of purpose and passion are weighing on educators, then one option might be to request a change of scenery. Ask to teach a new subject or grade level or join a new school faculty. I decided to take my own advice and ask for the reassignment in February 2024.

Fast forward to today. 

I am now back in the classroom after spending over a decade in a school library. I teach a STEM encore class called Project Lead The Way to 6th, 7th, and 8th graders in a middle school closer to my home. My youngest daughter is in 6th grade there and is actually a student in one of my classes! My 6th graders take Design and Modeling, where I teach design thinking and 3D printing. My 7th graders are enrolled in Medical Detectives, a course in which we solve medical mysteries while learning about the human body. Automation and Robotics is the curriculum for my 8th graders. They learn about Vex Robotics and programming. These courses are so much fun to teach and truly build on STEM concepts they learn in their core classes.

A typical day at work may look like this:

6th grade AM class: Students create a nesting box (birdhouse) in Tinkercad and adapt the base model for a variety of birds while the 3D printers in my room are printing name tags for book bags designed by these same students last week.

7th grade AM class: Students receive a fictitious patient’s medical file and follow the clues in the medical mystery to reveal a problem with the patient’s neurological system. Once students determine where the problem may be, they receive a sheep’s brain to dissect and find the tumor or lesion! Finally students determine the best course of action and will create patient education brochures for the neurological case.

8th grade AM class: Students use Vex Robotics to create a cam and follower system. In an instant design challenge, they must make a yard decoration and code the system to have the decoration “hop” up and down. Within 45 minutes, the system must be built, decorated, presented, and disassembled…

Because in the afternoon, I repeat the same activities with three new classes!

Outside of the excellent curriculum, though, I am back in a role where I get to have students on a regular basis and build strong bonds. This is truly what my heart was missing! When middle school students write on the whiteboard that you’re their favorite teacher, or they side-eye you and slap their heads when you use the latest Gen Alpha slang - here’s looking at you, “That wasn’t sigma! It wasn’t even mid, bruh. That was actually top tier skibidi toilet Ohio. Totally negative aura!” and they groan when you have to miss a day for a doctor appointment… Those are moments that fill up my proverbial educator cup.

Of course, it’s not all sunshine and roses. 

There are hard days… really, really hard days. The days that have pushed me and challenged me as an educator. The students who make me wonder if I will ever find a way to reach them. The technology doesn’t work, or the observation happens at the worst possible time. The days I push the “educator bladder” to the absolute limit! The struggle of deciding if I should just go to work sick or write those lesson plans for the substitute. My classroom is a hot mess; I cannot iterate that enough. I desperately need a day to just organize, but I’ll get there--eventually.

I do miss the digital learning coaching. I miss the look of desperation when a student brings a book back to the library, and they are on the hunt for the next in the series. Maybe one day I’ll return to that world. For now, I just revel in this incredible role of being a classroom teacher again. I am grateful that I scheduled another “Educational Eye Exam” of my own, took my own advice, and requested a change.

If you find yourself struggling to enjoy your job and you feel that the coals in your fire may be lukewarm and barely smoldering, then perhaps it’s time to request a change of some sort for next year. We need terrific educators, so don’t give up hope! You matter every day and you may just need a change of scenery to regain your passion and purpose again!

Thank You!