The weakest link in any access security mechanism is the human element. On the second day of the NADE conference I was able to manipulate that element in order to gain access to free internet service. Ironically, The Evernote databases were hacked the very next day, seemingly through the same port of entry that I used for my digital intrusion. I was forced to change my password, which apparently had been stolen. I went on to change other passwords that I used that were the same as I used for Evernote. I took it as a lesson in cybersecurity. Again, no matter how big and strong your Tower Defense is, there is always a way in.
My conference focused on Developmental Education, which is an entirely different kind of Tower Defense. As Hunter Boylan is fond of pointing out, we are all developmental in something. It is therefore inherent for us to see that developmental part of ourselves as a weakness and protect it as though it were the weak point into our Tower Defense. What this means to me as an instructor is that my students are protecting themselves against the idea that I might use their weakness in a subject as a way to exploit them. This is not what teachers do, but I suppose there are some who do, who make their students seem less than, because they can’t figure out the proper use of there (or their or they’re). So, my job becomes to make them comfortable revealing this almost intimate weakness and then helping them build up their skill so that this weak link, this human element, becomes a strength.
I spent several days learning how to do that better as well as recognizing that many of the strategies I use—purely on instinct—are being replicated and quantified by instructors across the country. I am not a good teacher yet—not by my standards. However, I do have a good mind. I’ve started to doubt that over the last ten years. When I moved to Phoenix I came to a point where I no longer believed in myself. I felt that I reached some apex of ability and had neither the capacity to improve nor the will to sustain the level I was at. Confidence ebbed and flowed until my first child came into the world, and that is when it took a nosedive. Each successive child brought a lower level of personal esteem, mostly because I don’t have that support system to remind me of my capacity for greatness. Positive comments are reserved for the children in my home. That is the family I married in to. So, staying positive about my worth, attractiveness, perseverance, charisma, skills as a professional teacher, and even a writing ability largely comes from the self (which could be dismissed as personal delusion) and the occasional friend who lets slip a tirade of positivity when the haters are not around.
It is a wonder I smile so dang much.