My name is Mrs. Levey and I am currently teaching 6th grade Language Arts at Wakefield Middle School in Raleigh, NC.


At home, I am the wife to a man always on the go and two growing girls who keep me very busy. When we are not running to orchestra or dance class, we are off to a picnic a the park or some other adventure, including our favorite vacation spot - Disney World.


This blog follows my thoughts on my reading, mostly the ones for Middle Readers, and the adventures of finding that right job...

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Writing Territories

What subjects do I want to write about this year...

  • My kids
  • Vacation
  • Student Teaching (I know I am going to do a lot of that)
  • Technology
  • Digital Journaling
  • Students
  • Podcasting
  • Websites
  • Effects of technology in the classroom (studying teaching in a classroom with a ready supply of technology versus a classroom without a ready supply of technology)
  • Using facebook, twitter, and smartphones in the classroom
What is my story...
I grew up in small town Dayton, Oh.  On occasion we traveled outside of the state and country, but mostly I was in Dayton.  After going to college for a few years I found a job working for a food service company in the Sports Industry.  This took me all over the U.S. and Canada.  Eventually in my travels I met my husband and after a few years we decided to get married and have kids.  Now our jobs didn't really make room for kids so one of us would have to sacrifice our job for the family.  Naturally, he made more money so I jumped ship to be a stay at home mom for 6 years.  During that time I volunteered and joined social groups to keep active, but then a couple of years ago I decided that my kids wouldn't be little forever and it was time for a career change.  At that point, I went back to school and started on my Teaching Degree.  This fall I will be starting the new challenge of Student Teaching, while my husband and kids live in St. Louis.  

I could actually write a lot about my time working for Sportservice.  I had a lot of interesting adventures that I know are unique to my situation.  How many people get to work at Football, Baseball, and Hockey Facilities?  Go to Rodeos and work with tv crews.  How about almost run over Mayor Rudy Giulani with a golf cart?  Here I was a young woman in a man's world, trying to break through the so called "glass ceiling" of being more than just a human resources or paper person, but actually being on the floor and making decisions.

One of the things to focus on was being a woman in a world that is predominately men.  I don't know if I was a trail blazer, but I think there was a lot of changes that did take place after I put my foot down and showed them that I was more than just what they thought.

As I was listening, I heard about how difficult 1st year of teaching was, but not because of the teaching aspect, but everything else.  You can't help but sympthese with the situation.  How would I react?

Changing topics - Ira Glass and Digital Storytelling
  • Building Block One: The anticdote - series of events, no matter how boring it is, it creates momentum.  Want to start with the action
  • Raise questions from the beginning (implied that any question that you raise is going to be answered)
  • Building Block Two: Moment of reflection (why am I doing this)
Do you have a series of events?  Why does it matter?  Every piece should have a so what - what makes it meaningful for the audience?
  • Meaningful - why we don't give up even when we have been placed in a specific spot or is it that we can go away and meet so many people and its what happens at home that effects us the most
  • Series of Events
    • Hired on as a Manager Trainee
    • Moved to Cleveland - worked with favorite football team, worked with Warner Brothers, trained in Human Resources and Financials
      • Smarter than they think?
      • Don't dress like a young woman
    • San Antonio - pigeoned holed into Financials - youthful mistake of saying this isn't what I want to be (lesson of keeping mouth shut)
    • Canada - teaching what I know to a new culture, losing VISA after three months
    • Buffalo - short two weeks before being told I was going back to Dayton to work at a facility
    • Dayton - returned home and met hubby
Memory - 
What I see:
  1. Memory - a deportee daughter's memory
  2. brick road or sidewalk that seems to go on and on
  3. Train track with the sound of a train, but no train
  4. a lake or a river at edge
  5. an old village as the photo pans across
  6. a chapel in the village with tomb stones
  7. a cross, wooden
  8. handwritten note: to my father...

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