July Blogging Challenge - How I Met My Bestie

Yesterday's post was a bit of a whiny post and I apologize for that. I received my scores last night and while they weren't as good as I had hoped for, they were better than last year, so we have movement in the right direction. I spent some time talking to @gwaddellnvhs, @jkindred13, and @approx_normal about things to do differently next year to really engage my students at a higher level. I truly believe that "the person doing the working is the person doing the learning" and I am making that into my theme for this next year. I'm still a bit bummed about my scores overall because even though I know I taught a quality course, the scores don't fully reflect it. On the upside, I didn't have too many major surprises and I really want to focus this year on moving the 2s to 3s and the 3s to 4s.

When I started typing yesterday's post, I was really feeling like a Debbie Downer and posted about it on twitter. That prompted a response from @approx_normal...

In life, sometimes we are just blessed by how some random blip in your timeline becomes something major and significant. Many, many, many moons ago, prior to joining Twitter and the MTBoS, I used to frequent a teacher message board and chatroom. One day about 6 years ago, I was browsing the Math Teacher Chatboard on that site and happened upon a post that said "Help! Teaching AP Statistics for the first time!" At the time, I had taught AP Stat for several years but still remember the stress of that first year and back then, there were very few resources online for AP. As a result, whenever I see a teacher asking for help, I try to do my best to step in and help however I can. I replied to the post and offered my email address, thinking that I would never hear from this teacher again. To my surprise, Hedge replied and we struck up a friendship over AP Statistics.

Throughout her first year, our emails back and forth were very "how do I teach X or Y", but before long, we exchanged cell phone numbers and started texting as well. A few months later, I found out that one of my favorite AP presenters was going to be in town to a summer workshop and I sent Hedge the information but doubting that she would come.. I mean, I'm some random person from the internet! During the year, our friendship grew and before I knew it, summer was here and I got to meet Hedge for the first time. Hubby and I went to the airport to pick her up (because he didn't want me to go alone in case she was a crazy person) and she was exactly like I had imagined. During the first day, we took her to all of the fun tourist-y spots in town and along the way, she told us that her mom and husband had really tried to talk her out of coming. Before her trip, she had watched Taken, which is about being kidnapped and sex trafficking, which is probably NOT the movie to watch before flying several hours away to meet someone you've never met before! Her mom was convinced that I was a serial killer and that this would be the last trip Hedge ever took.

We had a great time that week and it really solidified our friendship. Not too long after the workshop, I joined Twitter and convinced Hedge to come along for the ride. At first, a lot of people thought she and I taught together at the same school and were surprised when they found out that we taught several states apart and had only met once in "real life". Since then, we've met up whenever we could at conferences, etc. We still joke that I'm a VERY patient serial killer, as we have shared several hotel rooms and I haven't killed her yet! :)

Sometimes I look at my life and really think about how blessed I am. I have an amazing hubby and a job that I love. But one of the most amazing things to me is how blessed I am to have TRUE friends. As an introvert, I've never made friends easily. Don't get me wrong.. I'm a friendly person, but I don't make true, lasting friendships easily. The kind of friendships that you hear about in the movies, where childhood best friends grow up, move states away, yet still know that the other person is there for them no matter what. When I first started on this journey, I would never have imagined that I would develop that kind of friendship over the internet/texting, but that shows the power of technology and the MTBoS. My life is richer because of the people around me. As I've already said twice this week, I am a nerd and I'm so glad that the people of the MTBoS really get me. I'm also glad that Hedge's mom is a little less convinced that I'm a serial killer... :)

July Challenge
I am on a personal challenge to blog every day in July, just to see if I can do it. I would love to have you join me! If you are worried that you've missed a few days, please don't stress.. just jump on in! Maybe a month is too much, that's okay, try it for a week, or every other day, or once a week.. whatever works for you!

Don't forget to visit the other July bloggers and show them some love!
The bloggers (so far)
Robin at Flip! Learn! Share
Bridget at Reflections in the Plane
Teresa at GeometryWiz
Sherrie at Middle School Math Rules!
Brooke at Sined, Sealed, Calculated
John at Functions are Fun
Jedidiah at Math Butler
Pam at the radical rational
Roxy at Rockstar Math Teacher
Paul at TeacherPaulP

Add your blog in the comments if you would like to join in! :)
#July2014Challenge