Vicki - the Cool Cat Teacher

If you're a teacher and feel like your students are going to drive you insane, well guess what? I found a remedy for you! And if you don't feel like your students are going to drive you insane, you should drink this remedy anyway because it tastes that good. This remedy takes the form of a blog that will remind you why you are such an awesome person.

Vicki Davis, also known as the Cool Cat Teacher, is the author of one of the best teaching blogs I've ever stumbled across. Take for example her post, Finding Your Beautiful Moment the Last week of School, which expresses how to end your school year in a 100m sprint rather than a halfhearted jog.  Through her blog, Vicki is, in a sense, teaching how to teach. Check out this excerpt:

Plan Your Last Day Well So Students Know You Care. Students need to hear speeches because you can't say things enough. They may groan when you talk about being safe over the summer. They may roll your eyes when you tell them you love them and encourage them to make wise choices. Who cares what they think -- If they KNOW you love them and you say what they need to hear. You have one more chance.

That's so inspiring! And this is just one example of the many blog posts in which Vicki gives super helpful advice through her own teaching experience. So why should other teachers listen to Vicki? Well for one, she happens to be a full-time teacher with ten years of experience. She's also been a keynote speaker on teaching for major companies like Google and Cisco, which is no small deal. But the most important thing to me is the quality of her blogs. One could read just a few lines from any post and know that this lady really knows her stuff.

One thing that legitimately confuses me is how Vicki can be a full time teacher and still manage to post several times a week. And her posts aren't just a few sentences of idle thoughts, but meaty, full-length articles complete with links, pictures, media, and a great deal of enthusiasm. I mean, it can take me hours just to write one post with comparatively way less content. Vicki, teach me the way!

Just to prove how awesome she is, she's won a bunch of awards given for having the best teaching blog. She also has as huge number of readers who comment like crazy - one of her posts has over 80 comments! I have a feeling that most of her readers are also teachers, so by creating an excellent blog she inadvertently created a community for these teachers to interact with one another and share their own stories through their comments. How cool is that? A place where teachers can relate to other teachers' successes, failures, and feelings.

I'm excited to be able to implement Vicki's teaching strategies to my own classroom once I start teaching high school math. I want my blog to be a reflection of my days' adventures for whoever would like to follow the struggles of a first year teacher. I feel like Vicki will help me get through those days through her blog, and she'll remind me how great being a teacher will be. Thanks in advance Big V!

One of her posts that I'm particularly stoked to apply to my classroom is How to be a Terrible Teacher. Even though the title of the post might sound negative, it actually has a profoundly positive message that reflects the entirety of her blog.

The positive message is that when we go down the path to be a Terrible Teacher that we check ourselves and stop. That we remember our noble calling and be more. That we move ahead and focus on our students. We can't afford to be a terrible teacher to even one student.

On top of dealing with constant adversity, it's not very often that teachers receive positive feedback from their own students. However, it's the aspect of giving without being significantly rewarded, other than the sheer satisfaction of witnessing your students succeed, that makes teaching such a powerful and noble career. Thank you Vicki for reminding us of that.