Introduction to Matthew Beck, My Journey into Education

As this is my first attempt at blogging, I thought an introduction would be a logical opening post.

Personal Life
I am 33 years old and have been happily married to my beautiful wife for over 8 years. She is also an administrator in New Jersey. We have two beautiful young boys, ages 2 and 4. We currently, and have  for over 8 years, commute to our jobs in New Jersey from our home in the Poconos.

Educational Background
My post-secondary educational journey began at Wilkes University, where I earned a BA in Criminology in 2003. Soon thereafter, I began my pursuit of a teaching certification and a Master's Degree. I earned an M.Ed. in Secondary Education for East Stroudsburg University in 2008. In pursuit of administrator certifications, I took two additional course at ESU in order to earn my Supervisor Certificate for the State of New Jersey. I then entered NJ Excel's Principal Certification program, which I completed in January 2013. I immediately entered NJ Excel's Superintendent certification program and earned my School Administrator certificate in February of 2014.

Professional Experience Prior to Education
While still an undergraduate and immediately after graduating, I worked in various juvenile placement facilities. These facilities varied in function from mental health, to educational, to modeling juvenile detention facilities. These experiences are where my passion for working with children, particularly at-risk children, was born.

Experience in Education
My teaching career began as a building-based substitute in the East Orange School district. I remained a building-based sub for half of a year until I was able gain a teaching position in the district, which then required me to pursue alternate route certification. I absolutely loved working in the East Orange School District until, unfortunately, a Reduction in Force (RIF) forced me out of the district. My next teaching venture led me to the Fredon Township School, a small, rural K-6 school in Sussex County. Fredon created a position of a 5th and 6th grade only Social Studies teacher in the 2007-2008 school year. This was quite a cultural change from the urban high school district to which I had grown accustomed. This teaching venture ended quite quickly as the position they had created for me was then eliminated after only one school year.

At this point I had faced a RIF in two consecutive school years and was beginning to question whether education was the right field for me. As a result, I continued to apply to other school districts for Social Studies teaching positions, but at the same time, I began the process of putting my criminology degree to work and becoming a police officer. I made it through the written testing stage and then the physical testing stage to the point of earning an interview with the Stroud Area Regional Police. Soon after being offered this interview, I had interviewed and been offered a position in the Morris County Vocational School District. I gave teaching one more try and taught for four years at Morris Tech while coaching girls' varsity basketball the entire time and coaching boys' JV soccer for three of those four years.

The Journey into Educational Leadership
After four years of teaching at Morris Tech, I caught my big break. To me, it seemed like making the jump from teaching to administration would be impossible. When one goes on interviews for administration positions, most school districts are looking for someone with experience. If all school districts were to hold this same philosophy, then it would be impossible for anyone to move from teaching to administration. Fortunately for me, Sussex County Technical School was willing to take a risk on someone with administrative experience limited to the internship roles in which I served in addition to my many roles as a teacher-leader.

My first year at Sussex Tech was as a Supervisor  of Humanities. I served in this administrative role in addition to teaching three sections of United States History I. While this role served as my means to break into administration, it was quite difficult to serve in a "slash" position while expecting to be an excellent administrator as well as an excellent teacher. Fortunately for me, Sussex Tech got a new Superintendent after my first year and he immediately removed me from the classroom and added two grade levels of student discipline to my duties.

While my current job title is Director of Curriculum and Instruction, my job responsibilities allow me to fulfill those of a vice principal, principal, Assistant Superintendent, and even Superintendent in some cases.

To view my resume, which includes more details of my experience and current roles/responsibilities email me.

Future Goals
It is my goal to continue my journey in educational leadership by striving to be the best Director of Curriculum and Instruction that I can be for myself and for my school. Along with this, it is my goal to move up in the administrative ranks in pursuit of my ultimate goal: district superintendent.

My Journey into Social Media

Over the past few months I have made a game-changing discovery: social media is more than entertainment, it is an essential component to one's Professional Learning Network (PLN).

When the idea of Facebook, Twitter, and other social media first burst onto the scene, I was a classroom teacher. As a classroom teacher, it was always drilled into my head that social media accounts were a HUGE no-no and that nothing good could come of a somewhat public figure (teacher) sharing their personal life with the world, students included. While I still find the "not sharing their personal life" idea to hold true, I have quickly discovered that social media is a necessary (not optional) component to any educator's toolkit.

My first experience with Twitter as a classroom tool came while teaching at Morris Tech. It was then that I realized that many students' lives were centered around social media and that if I could incorporate social media into my teaching practices, then I could almost "trick" the students into learning. I created a Twitter account as a teacher (@MorrisTechBeck, creative right?). I had absolutely ZERO experience with any social media, but figured Twitter was a good place to start because of its one-way communication nature. I also thought it would be a good start because of its mandated, short, quick-fire 140-character limit, which is conducive to many students' learning styles. Once I created the account, I did not tweet for quite some time as I needed to get used to the Twitter lingo and tools. I followed a couple of different news sources and used Twitter as a news feed until I got comfortable enough with "tweeting", "retweeting", "favoriting", and "hash-tagging". After a few weeks, I was off and running with utilizing my teacher Twitter account to tweet everything from homework/project reminders, test dates and study guides, history resources, and even scores to the soccer and basketball games I was coaching.

I soon had many students, parent, other teacher, and administrators following me. I even installed a Twitter widget onto my classroom Google site for those students/parents who did not have a Twitter account. From there they could follow my classroom updates just as easily without a Twitter account.

This school year, in my third year as an administrator at Sussex Tech, I made it one of my goals to utilize social media to boost our district's communication with the school community and also to increase my own PLN. I created a district Twitter account (@SCTSMustngs) and linked it to a district Facebook account (Sussex County Technical School) that I created. I also figured out a way to have these tweets show up on our district homepage (www.sussextech.org) in realtime. Both the Twitter and the Facebook account have a significant following with constant retweets, favorites, mentions, and likes.

I also made a conscientious effort to grow my personal Twitter account into a professional resources asset. I cleaned up my twitter handle from @matthewlee1981 to the more professional @MatthewLBeck. I also added a professional profile picture along with a professional bio. I also started following many education-based accounts along with many local and national educational leaders. It is through these new connections that I am able to learn educational news and trends on a daily basis. I am also able to share such news and trends with my followers. Additionally, I compile worthwhile articles and resources I find on Twitter into a weekly "Top Resources of the Week" email (with links) that I share with my entire staff.

I can honestly say that my opinion on social media has completed a full "180". I have gone from viewing social media for an educator as a taboo to now viewing it as an essential tool. Not only do I use it myself daily, I also spread the word to my staff members. In my opinion, when used responsibly, social media can and should be in every educator' toolkit.