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	<title>WIRL Project &#187; Learn</title>
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	<description>What It&#039;s Really Like.</description>
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		<title>Top Ten Things I Learned After I Resigned</title>
		<link>http://www.wirlproject.com/top-ten-things-i-learned-after-i-resigned/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wirlproject.com/top-ten-things-i-learned-after-i-resigned/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 24 Jun 2015 08:00:45 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Tara Lynn Foster]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Family]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wirlproject.com/?p=6899</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A little more than a year ago, I left my &#8220;cushy&#8221; job in corporate to strike out on my own. I&#8217;ve learned a lot during that time and now I&#8217;m ready to share. Here it is…the long awaited, much anticipated TOP TEN LIST of things I learned after resigning from my J-O-B. If not comprehensive in coverage, it is at least true in every aspect. This journey to one year post-resignation has been one of the most interesting, surprising, and rewarding of my career. There have been technical AND personal lessons all along the way. Some have been edifying and others have been just downright frustrating and debilitating. Thankfully, I have a wonderful support system which has carried me through the lows and celebrated the highs. May it always be so and may it keep me mindful of how to do it for others as they strike out on their own. Enjoy! #10. DO, finally, go on a field trip with your kindergartener’s class. Do NOT ride the bus with said class. #9. Setting up a website and a blog will involve forming a really close relationship with Doug the support guy at GoDaddy, the email support at Weebly, and the WordPress consultant (Booyah!), and basically anyone who is willing to answer your dumb I’m-not-a-millennial-what-does-this-button-do questions. #8. Spending three hours trying to export and reformat your contacts from a Mac OS to excel is stupid. There’s an app for that. It took five minutes. SMH. #7. SMH means “shaking my head.” This and many other acronyms give you lots of street cred with the cool kids hanging out on social media. #6 So, Mailchimp is not a great ape that works for the post office? Got it. #5. Coordinating calendars is difficult when you are on the same network, but nearly impossible when you aren’t and you are reduced to trading availability through email. Thankfully, there’s an app (or 10) for this, too. #4. Writing your own website content is kind of fun, but it turns out the “About Me” page is actually the hardest part to write (cue René Descartes). Have you ever really tried to answer the question: “Who am I?” It’s HARD! #3. QuickBooks: It is neither quick nor a book. Discuss. (#ihateaccounting) #2. It only takes two years, the loss of all daily access to PCs, the installation of Microsoft Office for Mac, two OS upgrades, and a few Apple classes to turn a Mac from a glorified TV into an actually useful piece of technology. (Where’s that Staples button…) #imamac #thatwaseasy And the number one thing I have learned… #1. People want to help. They really do. Receiving support and encouragement, and accepting help from friends, colleagues, and surprisingly friendly strangers on twitter (@ericlmitchell) during this time of major change has been a bigger blessing than I could have ever imagined. Everyone should be as lucky as me. &#160; Got anything to add to my list? What have you learned that you carried forward after making a BIG decision? Let me know in your comment below!]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>18</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>My First Blog University Experience</title>
		<link>http://www.wirlproject.com/my-first-blog-university-experience/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wirlproject.com/my-first-blog-university-experience/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 17 Jun 2015 14:00:47 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Guest WIRL]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Life/Leisure]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[WIRL Challenge]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[School]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[WIRL Challenge BlogU]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wirlproject.com/?p=7018</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I had no idea what to expect and tried to hold no expectations lest they be the wrong sort. I wanted a pure, completely real experience. And there I was. BLOG U 2015 Land of the bloggers. The bigs, the littles, and all the in betweens. Honest to God I had no idea of what to expect. I just know I needed – no – WANTED to learn more. And how much there is to learn. “Oh. My. God. I’m so out of my league. What the hell am I doing here with all these real writers? I feel like a fraud. I just have this little blog – poorly put together little blog – and I’m going to class with these people who make real money and have thousands of followers.” My thoughts raced through my head and my face turned red with stress. I registered. And got the best, most welcomed hug ever from a woman I adore and whose blog I stalk – Jennifer from Real Life Parenting. She may not know it, but she started the conference out right for me. Right then and there I decided to be me…the real me. The talkative, loud, obnoxious introvert I am. (Yes, you read that right. Introvert.) I walked into class late. One that Nicole Leigh Shaw and Robyn Welling were teaching. I walked in late in front of these greats and started furiously scribbling notes. And in my frantic note taking I flicked my pen across the room. I got out another pen. And proceeded to drop that pen. I moved onto my pencil. The guy behind me was waiting – I know it – for me to fling it towards the front of room. Sadly for him, I managed to keep hold of that writing implement. After class I stood up and this funny thing happened. Someone said, “Hi! Oh you’re Evil Joy! I know you!” You could have pushed me over with a feather. I fumbled for my snazzy new business cards and thrust one out at her. I asked for her card and we started chatting. I realized who I was talking to and about fell over again….Kerry of HouseTalkN. And then the education continued. For the first time in my adult life, I was and am ready to learn. School was always a means to an end. I went to high school to get to college. College served as a pathway forward to a job in the real world. Classes at work, whether I was the student or instructor, were simply a vehicle to move my career forward. For the first time in years, if not ever, I was taking a class because I WANTED to learn. I craved the information presented. I couldn’t take notes fast enough. I had so many questions (and I kept throwing my pens at people). I didn’t ask many because in all honestly I was overwhelmed. I was unprepared for just how much I have to learn. So much. SOOOOO much. Blog U 2015 provided the educational experiences I craved. From Writing and Editing to Branding. Metrics and SEO. Instagram and Pinterest. There were classes offered I couldn’t attend because I was in another class. I have never wished for a clone so much. And then…the events at night. From hearing four of the most moving essays I’ve ever experienced to dancing with my dear friends I finally got to hug in real life – Alyson – I’m talking about you – Blog U 2015 was an incredible experience. And the cherry on top?!?! I had to explain it to my girls like this, “You love Demi Lovato. Imagine meeting her, having her know who you are, hugging you and then when you’re stuck at the airport offering to have you sleep over. How excited would you be?!” My Demi is Susan McLean of The Divine Secrets of the Domestic Diva. I’ve written before how she was my life line to sanity when Dr. Evil was sick. I stalked her site. I emailed her asking for prayers. SHE EMAILED ME BACK. And when we met last week….she told me she was as excited to meet me as I was to meet her. It is a rare thing for someone you’ve idolized to be as awesome as you dreamed they would be. She was more. And my sprinkles on top of that cherry? Spending time with my dear friend Teri of Snarkfest. Once again she opened her home and welcomed me into her family. I’ll always be grateful to be able to call her my friend. &#160; It took me a week to get this out of my head. I played ball with the good kids while being a mediocre player. I’m good with that. Because to get better you have to play up. And every single person I met welcomed me with open arms, a hug, and smiles. I’m thankful I got to attend and hope to make it back next year. I’m going to be implementing many changes in the up coming months so stay tuned. I am striving to become the more I know I can be. &#160; *This piece was originally published on Evil Joy Speaks. Join The Conversation! Easily contribute your story here. &#160; About the Author… Joy aka Evil Joy is wife to one Dr. Evil and mom to four children she lovingly refers to as spawn. Often funny, always honest, and occasionally serious, Joy writes about life as she sees it. She&#8217;s passionate about her family, snowboarding, running, blogging, and reading. Come take a look at life from the Evil Joy side of the road! It&#8217;s a great place to be! You can find Evil Joy at her blog and all over the interwebs. &#160;]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
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		<title>This Whole Homeschooling Thing&#8230;</title>
		<link>http://www.wirlproject.com/this-whole-homeschooling-thing/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wirlproject.com/this-whole-homeschooling-thing/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 07 May 2015 09:00:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Sara Brennan]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Life/Leisure]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Home Schooling]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Homeschooling]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Public School]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Schooling]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wirlproject.com/?p=5929</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[When I am passionate about something, you know it. Most of the time my friends and family will say, Calm down! as I&#8217;m talking because I get so worked up. I guess that&#8217;s the Type-A coming out in me. Anyway, I feel pretty passionately about what I&#8217;m about to say. I was a teacher for 6+ years before becoming a stay-at-home mom and I have some thoughts on this issue. And, if you start reading this and strongly disagree, I urge you to keep reading, you will be really surprised at my closing thoughts.  So, here we go. I&#8217;ve found through reading SEVERAL blogs lately that homeschooling is on the rise. Apparently, according to the National Home Education Research Institute, there are about 2.2 million home educated children in the US. This baffles me! To me, homeschooling seems so unnatural, but that&#8217;s probably because I&#8217;ve been in a classroom for years. I also don&#8217;t know who would actually want to do this? Why wouldn&#8217;t you just leave it to the professionals? I like the idea of my kids going off to school and interacting with other students and teachers! Plus, I need a break! To help you understand how I feel about this, in true teacher fashion, I&#8217;ll give you an example: I guess I can explain my way of thinking on this subject as this: Something went wrong with my electricity in my house. Sure, I could look it up on YouTube and read books to educate myself on how to fix it, but why not just hire a professional who knows what they&#8217;re doing to fix it? Why on Earth would you try to take on something like this yourself? Is the end result the same? Maybe, or maybe not? So, yeah, that may have pissed you off because you think I&#8217;m comparing your kid to an electrical problem and you to a DIY Electrician, but that&#8217;s not really what I meant. Let me explain&#8230; So, I have a Master&#8217;s Degree in Secondary Education and know the content I am qualified to teach VERY well, just ask any of my previous students (this is where my old students should scroll to the bottom and leave a comment about how I was such an AMAZING teacher). Very few people actually completely major in the subject they&#8217;re teaching; it&#8217;s rare to find someone like me. For example, most people go to school knowing they want to become a teacher and major in Education. They take classes to hone in on the area they want to teach and major in some kind of Education program. Then, as long as they can pass the Praxis text, they are good to go and they can become a qualified teacher. Not me. I majored in Biology, actually I was Pre-Pharmacy for a while, and I ended up with a BA in Biology and a Concentration in Neuroscience. Whoa, right? I MUST be smart! Well, yes, but that major wasn&#8217;t really getting me anywhere, especially since it wasn&#8217;t ideal timing for me to jump into Pharmacy School (my dad just passed away) and so my &#8220;smartness&#8221; wasn&#8217;t getting me anywhere. So, the next best thing was to go to Graduate school and get my Masters in Education, so I could teach. Still with me? I promise, this article really is about homeschooling! So anyway, I moved south and started teaching at a not-so-great school and then eventually got a job at a SUPER-great school! I was living the dream, right? No. The amount of work that was put on me as a science teacher (not to mention NEW teacher in general) was incredible. Not only did we have lesson plans due every day, but I taught 220 students! Yes, 220! And that meant that for every assignment I gave, I had to grade 220 of them! WTF! How is this even possible? On top of that, teachers are faced with parent criticisms meetings, committees, report cards, state testing, district testing, phone calls, discipline issues, differentiated lessons and children with special needs. We are asked to be innovative and we are evaluated using a very impossible difficult evaluation tool that is supposed to be objective, but is SO subjective! There were many days I left my classroom in tears or so angry that I could have exploded, but rarely was it because of the kids. It was the incredible workload on my plate and that I kept being asked to do more, more, more and to be better, better, better! Aside from actually being in front of the kids and interacting with them, there was never a time when it was really that &#8220;fun&#8221;. I had very little autonomy to allow my &#8220;craft&#8221; or &#8220;art&#8221; as an individual to shine through. A robot could easily do the job of a public school teacher, on some accounts, because there are so many checklists and systems we are forced to follow&#8230;it has very little to do with how &#8220;good&#8221; a teacher is anymore, it&#8217;s more about how well can they &#8220;play the game&#8221;. So, my biggest question, concern, rant, whatever this is about the homeschooling thing is not that it&#8217;s not a good choice or that I don&#8217;t agree with it, but rather, how the hell can a mom of 6 homeschool her kids with 6 different curriculums and do it just as well as someone who knows the ins-and-outs of education and is a master at the content they teach? At first, my personal thought was that homeschooling can&#8217;t be done as effectively as in a classroom. Learning in a classroom setting not only teaches the kids the content, but it also teaches them empathy, social skills, and discipline. There are definitely some children who I have taught that would have done SO much better in a different setting, the classroom just wasn&#8217;t right for them, but for the most part, school is a great experience for kids. They get to play sports, learn classroom etiquette, develop a rapport with adults OTHER than their parents, and they get to make lifelong friendships. Aside from my personal thoughts about homeschooling vs. public schooling, I&#8217;d also like to point the finger at the public education system. Earlier I asked, &#8220;How the hell can a mom of 6 homeschool her kids with 6 different curriculums and do it just as well as someone who knows the ins-and-outs of education and is a master at the content they teach?&#8221; It wasn&#8217;t a jab at those moms and dad&#8217;s homeschooling their kids, but rather a serious &#8220;How the hell do you do this?&#8221; and &#8220;Why does it have to be so difficult to just teach one curriculum in a public setting?&#8221; Ask a public school teacher, especially a middle or high school teacher, to teach more than two subjects and they&#8217;ll flip! Why, because it&#8217;s SO hard to manage just ONE! And then you&#8217;re going to ask us to completely learn a whole other subject area? NO F&#8217;ING WAY! It&#8217;s seemingly impossible to be knowledgeable enough or capable to teach and manage this many lessons, assignments, and students and it causes teachers to spread themselves too thin and get burnt out. Plus, needless to say, it&#8217;s not in their pay grade. But people do it, and they do it well, but rarely do you EVER seeing a public school secondary education teacher instructing more than two curriculums. And then we go back to the homeschooling parent, who is apparently managing and facilitating several different lessons per day, across several different curriculums, and you&#8217;re telling me this is as effective? I don&#8217;t know, that&#8217;s a hard pill for me to swallow. So when you look at the data from homeschooled children from the National Home Education Research Institute you&#8217;ll (be shocked to) find the following: The home-educated typically score 15 to 30 percentile points above public-school students on standardized academic achievement tests. (The public school average is the 50th percentile; scores range from 1 to 99.) Homeschool students score above average on achievement tests regardless of their parents’ level of formal education or their family’s household income. Whether homeschool parents were ever certified teachers is not related to their children’s academic achievement.  Degree of state control and regulation of homeschooling is not related to academic achievement.  Home-educated students typically score above average on the SAT and ACT tests that colleges consider for admissions. Homeschool students are increasingly being actively recruited by colleges &#160; WHAAAT? It actually works? Assuming that the data is unbiased, this is insane to me! It ACTUALLY works. So, maybe this is the time I&#8217;m supposed to say, Yay, go homeschooling kids and parents!, but I&#8217;m not going to say that just yet. I will tip my hat and congratulate you homeschooling folks; I know it&#8217;s not easy, in fact, it&#8217;s incredibly hard! However, I think we need to use this information to reconsider how we go about public education&#8230;if something else is working, I don&#8217;t think we should argue it and put it down, we should take a look and see what they&#8217;re (homeschooling parents) doing and why what we&#8217;re (public schools) doing isn&#8217;t as effective.  So, I said my closing remarks may surprise you, didn&#8217;t I? Here they are: I&#8217;m not going to take one side or the other, but I am going to point this out: I don&#8217;t think all the extra shit public school teachers are asked to do is helping. I think we need to get back to the basics and just let our teachers teach. Moms and Dads, who may not know shit about the content their teaching (no offense), are doing it successfully! They take the time to learn the content and help their kids in the best way they can and they are SUCCESSFUL, regardless of their economic status, demographics, or background&#8230;and we all know this is NOT the case for public schools.  I guess I just think teaching at a public school does not have to be as hard as we (the system) make it. I&#8217;ve said this during my whole career as an educator, Just let them teach! The data, the methodology, the evaluations, the paperwork, the meetings, and the initiatives aren&#8217;t helping &#8211; they&#8217;re taking away from planning time and hindering us from being able to create really impactful, effective lessons. If a mom of 6 can teach each of her children the same things I would (while in her pajamas) and do it just as effectively or better, then there is something REALLY wrong with our system. Don&#8217;t you agree? And let me just finish by saying Thank you to every teacher out there, who is doing the best they can, because it&#8217;s SO hard. Aside from being a parent, it&#8217;s the hardest job I&#8217;ve ever had. Keep working hard public, private and homeschool teachers. Keep putting in the time because it&#8217;s working and no matter what anyone tells you, you ARE making a difference. I guess it doesn&#8217;t matter who is teaching what or where, what really matters is that the child is getting the best education possible. Right? That&#8217;s my two cents and I guess that&#8217;s also why I&#8217;m no longer a public school teacher (lol). &#160;]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>10</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>If You Could Redo College, How Would You Do It?</title>
		<link>http://www.wirlproject.com/if-you-could-redo-college-how-would-you-do-it/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wirlproject.com/if-you-could-redo-college-how-would-you-do-it/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 01 May 2015 19:16:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[WIRL Project]]></dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wirlproject.com/?p=5781</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[If you could redo your college experience, how would you do it? What would you change? Would you go to the same school? Would you select the same major? Hang with the same crowd? Play a sport? Study Harder? Join the same sorority or fraternity? Do you have regrets about college? Or would you do it all exactly the same?  &#160; Let us know your thoughts in the comments below. Or, better yet, join WIRL Project and share your story! &#160; &#160;]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>17</slash:comments>
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