(c)DearTeacherLT2013 (You may use the image if you link back to the blog and/or give credit to Dear Teacher/Love Teacher)
Dear Teacher,
I don’t know where today finds you, but there is only one thing that you need to do today to move on from yesterday.
Run.
I don’t mean physically run. I don’t mean run away from whatever may be going on. I mean keep going. Get a momentum going and keep it up. Don’t stop.
Run.
You have goals for yourself as a teacher. You have goals for your students. You have goals for your classes. You have goals for your school. Look at those goals. Keep them in sight. No matter what happens, don’t lose focus. You head towards whatever your focus is. Focus on your goals and…
Run.
You know who you want to be as a teacher. You know the teacher you want to be known as. You know the teacher you students need. And you know how hard it is to get there and be that teacher…and the obstacles grow every day. Don’t give up. Keep focusing on the goal and…
Run.
You know what your students need. You know what they are missing. You know where they need to go. You know where they need to be when they leave you. You know the destination, though you don’t always know how to get there. Focus on that end, keep looking for the right route, keep working through detours and dead ends. Find a way to get there and…
Run.
You, your students, your classes, your school all need you. They need you to keep going,. They need you to persevere. They need you to never stop. They need you to…
Run!
Run today, Teacher. Run with all that you have. Don’t stop. Make today great. Focus on the finish line today and run. You may still be far from the finish at the end of the day…but at least you will be closer. Don’t stop, just…
RUN!
You are awesome! Don’t stop running. Keep going. You can do it! We all believe in you! You are amazing! Keep going, keep teaching, and keep running, Teacher!
Love, Teacher
(c)DearTeacherLT2013 (You may use the image if you link back to the blog and/or give credit to Dear Teacher/Love Teacher)
(c)DearTeacherLT2013 (You may use the image if you link back to the blog and/or give credit to Dear Teacher/Love Teacher)(c)DearTeacherLT2013 (You may use the image if you link back to the blog and/or give credit to Dear Teacher/Love Teacher)
Dear Teacher,
I think the notes say it all. You are awesome! Keep going, keep going, keep going! Keep on teaching, Teacher!
It sounds like, from the feedback I have gotten, that this week has been a rough one for most of us. Too many things to do. Too many obstacles to overcome. Too many problems to solve.
You are worn out.
You are beat up.
You are spent
And now it is Friday.
A smile is deserved. Go ahead and do it! You know you want to. 🙂
No matter what happened this week. No matter what you were told. No matter where you messed up. No matter what, there was some “up” for all of the downs this week. Look back and find it and then celebrate it!
(c)DearTeacherLT2013 (You may use the image if you link back to the blog and/or give credit to Dear Teacher/Love Teacher)
You were able to get some things accomplished. Celebrate.
You were able to get some light bulbs to turn on with students. Celebrate.
You were able to connect with some students in new ways. Celebrate.
You were able to get some traction on the content you are teaching. Celebrate.
You were able to get students to learn a little more on their own. Celebrate.
You made a difference with at least a student or two. You helped a fellow teacher feel encouraged. You made someone’s day brighter. You did something for someone they could not do on their own. Celebrate. Celebrate. Celebrate.
Do go back and see what did not work and what you need to work on. That is important. Just don’t forget to celebrate and smile for what you did right. That is equally important.
You got to Friday. Smile. Celebrate. It is okay. You have earned it!
You are awesome! I know that you see what needs improvement. Just remember that you also do somethings well. You are amazing and you are making a difference. Keep on teaching, Teacher, and keep on celebrating the good!
This is going to be a quick one! I, like you, have a zillion things to accomplish and the time to finish about three! Thus is the life of a teacher. Too much to do…and not near enough time to even think about how do to half of what needs to be done let alone get any of it done!
And that is what I want to talk about. What do we do when we have too much to do.
We just do.
We move.
We go.
We do.
It is old and tiresome to quote, but I feel like I need to mention something that the Chinese philosopher, Lau-tzu said a long, long, long time ago:
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
We have a thousand miles to move every day as a teacher. It is overwhelming, to say the least. But we can’t let this stop us. We can’t. Our students need us. So we just need to start.
We need to take a step.
Then another.
Then another.
Then…
You get it.
We need to move.
Sometimes movement is the best we can do. Sometimes we can only muster up the energy, strength, and time for a single step…other times it might be seventeen…we might even be able to go a few miles. No matter how far we go, we just need to move. We need to step. We need to go.
Start stepping.
Move.
Go.
You may not get far today, but just move.
Oh, and make sure your students and their needs are you destination!
So what are you waiting for? Just move!
(c)DearTeacherLT2013 (You may use the image if you link back to the blog and/or give credit to Dear Teacher/Love Teacher)
You are tired, but you are awesome! It is hard, but you can do it! Don’t stop! Don’t give up! Keep going, Teacher, and keep on teaching!
Wake up and roar! (c)DearTeacherLT2013 (You may use the image if you link back to the blog and/or give credit to Dear Teacher/Love Teacher)
Dear Teacher,
Monday again. Get pumped up. You’ve got this. Today is yours. This week is yours. You are a teacher…Mondays are your day to shine!
For that reason, you need a theme song. You need to let this week know that you are coming. It is time for the “You” show. This theme is your song and your introduction to the week.
I have your theme ready, but this week is going to be a little different. Before I let you click play, I have something for you to read first.
I knew what song I wanted to feature this morning, but when I went on a video search I came across a cover of this song, and an amazing, heart-breaking, and inspiring story. I decided that even though the music side of this version is not as powerful, the story behind this one makes this version a thousand times more inspiring, I think as teachers, this one is going to make us face the week even more courageous than we would have without reading, seeing, and hearing it.
I want you to read this before playing the song. It is the description from YouTube. It tells the story of Olivia Wise. It tells why this song was recorded and presented on YouTube. Please read and be inspired.
Olivia Wise has Brain Cancer. She came into a recording studio for her first time and recorded the Katy Perry song Roar. She couldn’t walk or stand, she didn’t have her full breath or the energy she used to, and she was managing her new pains and new limitations. While her physical condition was rapidly fading, her spirit remained untouched.
Olivia is a fighter and has gone through the fire, in fact, she was going through the fire while she recorded this song, but you wouldn’t know it, because she was dancing right through it. She is an inspiration, a champion, and my hero. This is her Roar.
Here is a CNN story about her and her recording of the song.
I am not sure what I can say after this story. I am not sure if I need to say anything.
What worries you?
What stresses are you dreading this week?
What pressures are you feeling?
What makes you anxious?
Do these things matter in the grand scheme of things? Do they need to own your energy and patience? Do they need to master you? Do they need to break you this week?
What is most important? What matters most? What deserves your time and energy? What deserves you and your life?
Focus on what really matters. Focus on your students. Focus on your fellow teachers. Focus on your family. Focus on what helps you be there for others. Focus on you (in a good way).
After hearing what others are going through and fighting through, it really gives us perspective on ourselves. Really, what is it that truly matters?
What is the big picture? What, if we think about it, won’t matter later? Can we let those things go? Can we at least put them on the back burner?
I want to challenge you this week to let some of the stress go. I want you to think of what your students need, need of you, and need you to be. Put your energy there. Spend your time there. Let those things take your attention. If other things go, or at least make them wait. You will never regret putting your students and their learning first.
I think you will do more than not regret it, you will thank yourself for it later. So will your students. So will the future.
Focus on people this week. Be there for students, teachers, friends, and family.
Don’t let the weekly pressures choke out the space you need to have for others.
Have the eye of the tiger. Be louder than the lion. Stand firm. Let this week and the stress that comes with it hear you roar as you keep your priorities straight and you make a difference.
You are a champion. Prove it. Show it. Roar!
You are amazingly awesome! You are capable of not letting this week rule over you. You won’t let it. You will let your focus lie where it should. You are going to roar! I know you will! You are a great teacher, so of course you will! Be great and keep on teaching, Teacher!
A new week approaches. A new performance. A new show. A new presentation.
You do the research. You make the plans. You write the script. You learn your part. You practice, practice, practice (even if only in your mind).
You do your best to be ready for when the curtain opens.
You breathe through the Sunday night “butterflies” as the time to go “on” is only hours away.
This is the weekend for you, a teacher.
Breathe, Teacher. Breathe.
And let some of the worries go.
Let them go?
Yes.
Go.
Why?
Because you know that as soon as you step in the door on Monday, your plans will already be changed. You know that you can never really know what the week will throw at you. You will have to monitor. You will have to adjust. And just when your adjustments are adjusted, you will have to monitor again…and adjust. And monitor and adjust. Monitor and adjust. And monitor and adjust…all because you are a GREAT TEACHER.
Great teachers do not let plans and preparations rule the week. They are just what they are. Plans and preparations. The week has a plan of its own…and though you don’t let the week master you, you move and roll with it so you can master the week. Plans are not the end, they are just the means, and they can change. Your students and their needs are the end. You know the path to the end will change, and that doesn’t matter as long as you get to the end.
(c)DearTeacherLT2013 (You may use the image if you link back to the blog and/or give credit to Dear Teacher/Love Teacher)
You, amazing teacher, know what it takes to be an amazing teacher. Not because you are trying to be amazing, but because your students matter most. This is why you need to let go of some of the stress and Sunday night anxiety. Your plans willnot work the way you planned them this weekend. Your ideas for the week willchange. You willbe thrown curve balls on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. You willhave to monitor and adjust, monitor and adjust, and monitor and adjust. But…you willmake the right choices because you willthink about your students above all else.
(c)DearTeacherLT2013 (You may use the image if you link back to the blog and/or give credit to Dear Teacher/Love Teacher)
So, plan and prepare away, Teacher. We do need to plan, I am not saying we don’t. I am just saying that I think we need to let go of some of the Sunday, pre-week stress. It willall work out by Friday if we keep our students as our focus and make the needed weekly choices based on them and not the pressures that come from sources that are not our students.
I promise you, I am speaking to myself as much as I am to you…if not more!
Let’s remember our lost goal this week as we get ready for Monday…our students and their needs.
Let’s remember and breathe.
Breathe in. Breathe out.
This isgoing to be a great week!
You willbe ready when the curtain goes up tomorrow!
You are so awesome! You are one amazing teacher! You are going to make an impact on those students of yours this week, I just know it! I believe in you because you believe in your students! Be amazing and awesome this week! I know you will be! Keep on teaching, Teacher!
Love, Teacher
PS…Just have to share! I remembered that I had some cool video editing software. I did a little experimental project. It is not great, but it is a start into adding some Dear Teacher/Love Teacher videos into the mix of encouragement. What do you think? Be nice. 🙂
(c)DearTeacherLT2013 (You may use the image if you link back to the blog and/or give credit to Dear Teacher/Love Teacher)
Dear Teacher,
Last Friday, I accidentally kicked off a theme that carried through for a week. The challenge of changing the world. When I wrote it, i did not know that it would resonate with people so much…one of those people being me. It has stuck with me this week. The idea that we, especially we teachers, can change the world is a powerful idea. Not only is it powerful, it is true.
Anyone person can change the world. Teachers have a chance to multiply their change almost exponentially…only the change is done person-to-person and one student at a time. You, me, and every other teacher needs to realize this. It is really what we do. It is a part of the job, It is really part of the focus of what we do. We influence students. We help them to learn, think, and stand on their own.
Students’ personal change while they are in our class, that change that will allow them to face a world that does not yet exist, is the goal. The content is not the goal..though it is the medium through which we teach the skills they need for the world ahead of them…it is the means to the end, not the end itself. We are planting seeds for the future, and the subject and details we teach are just the outer layer of the seed.
Students. They are our “clients.” They are who we work for. They are the concentration area of our job. They are the center of the plans we make for what we do. They are the end goal of our work. They are the work we do. Pure and simple. Students are the change the world needs. We help them learn to be that change. Period. The end. Students.
So…we change the world by focusing on students.
Now what?
The hardest part. We wait. We wait for the world to change. We wait for the seeds to grow. We wait for the plant to mature. We wait for the adult plant to spread seeds of its own. It is the life cycle of plants. It is the life cycle of teaching. It is the life cycle of world change.
It is more than waiting though. When I say that we wait on the world to change, I am not talking about waiting like in the John Mayer song. It is not sitting back and waiting for something to happen. It is not waiting for the world to change itself. We, as teachers, don’t wait that way…and we should teach our students not to wait that way.
We proactively wait. We keep digging. We keep planting more seeds. We keep working on changing the world. We influence more and more people. We connect with more and more students (especially the difficult ones). We keep on going day after day after day. We never give up trying until start seeing some change in some way every where we look.
We work to cause the conditions of change. We wait for change. While we wait, we cause more conditions for change. We wait. While we wait, we…well, you get my drift here. We keep going.
The world WILL change. You are a part of it. To quote from the Kid President song I shared last week, “The world can be better, and you’ll be the cause.” Change is coming. We just have to work and wait….and “keep going, keep going, keep going.”
(c)DearTeacherLT2013 (You may use the image if you link back to the blog and/or give credit to Dear Teacher/Love Teacher)
You an agent of change for AWESOME…because you are awesome. Keep going. Just because you don’t see change, it doesn’t mean that it is not happening. You are doing what it takes! Keep doing what you do, you amazing teacher, you! Keep going. Keep on teaching, Teacher! Oh, and keep going (did I mention that?)!
I am in the trenches with you! This has been a long week. I am tired. I am beat up. I am worn out. I am not broken, but I am a little battered.
Do you feel the same way? If not today, have you recently?
I talk a lot about the pressures and struggles of teaching and the difficulty in finding balance while juggling a thousand things at once. I won’t remind us of that today. We know what we have to do. We know how hard it is. We don’t need to be re-educated on those things we know oh so well.
I am in a reflective mood. In this time of reflection, I am thinking a lot about what are really the roots of my frustration right now. I really don’t think it has anything to do with the students. I don’t think it is the burden of having so many responsibilities every minute of every day. I don’t think it is the pressures form above me in the hierarchy of things. I don’t think it is the content or curriculum. I don’t think it has much to do with the job of teaching at all. I think it has everything to do with me.
I don’t think I have focus.
I am not saying that I am not focused as a teacher. I am not saying that I am not looking to the standards for direction. I am not saying that I have forgotten my heart for students. I am not saying I do not see my place in the span of things at my school. I think I have a focus on all of these things, and everything else that I should.
And therein lies the problem.
The funny thing about focus is that it is very specific and pointed. When you focus on something, everything around it is slightly more blurry, even if just an imperceptible amount. You cannot truly have more than one focus.
What you focus on is the center of what you do. Everything else gets a little less attention and energy. It has to be this way. If it is not, then you are not really focused on anything.
When you focus on more than one thing at the same time (or many, many, many things), your energy is scattered. Your mind is scattered. Your heart and your soul is scattered.
When you are scattered, you are all over the place. You cannot sustain that. It will lead to frustration, heartache, and burnout. You can not run in more than one direction. You can not have more than one main goal. It just is not possible, at least not at the level it takes to be effective and meaningful.
So, that leaves me with the question, “What do I do now, Self?”
I find the goal that matters most. The goal that I lost along the way. I make that my focus. I give that my energy. I give that my all.
And what is that goal?
I don’t even have to think about the question to answer it. My students are my goal. Their growth, maturity, and becoming learners and people that care about other people is what I personally care the most about. Their who I work for, in essence. They are my reason for all that I do as a teacher.
What does this mean, then, to what I do day-to-day?
It means I weigh decisions based on what they need. It means I get to know them so that I know what they need. I means that I make sure I am not losing them for the sake of lesser goals (like following lesson plans to a “t,” sticking to a strategy that I am told is excellent when it is not working for my students, or staying “on-pace” when my students are falling behind). It means that I work on finding strategies that work for them. It means I am willing to have more than one lesson plan for the day because some students need a little more than others. It means I differentiate, I means I encourage and affirm them. It means I write notes, make parent phone calls, and take time to just say, “Hi, how are you doing?” It means that I never give up. It means that I find a way to reach each and every one of my students. No matter what!
(c)DearTeacherLT2013 (You may use the image if you link back to the blog and/or give credit to Dear Teacher/Love Teacher)
I don’t know if this rang true to you, but it is an open and honest reflection for me. This was needed. Thanks for reading if you made it this far! Do you need to readjust your focus, too? Join me in doing that today!
You are awesome! If you are here, it is because you are trying to be the best teacher you can be and looking for a boost of encouragement to keep up the fight. I hope you found that today. You deserve to be encouraged! You are a great, awesome, and amazing teacher! Your students are your goal. They are what really matter. Keep going. Keep fighting. Keep making that difference! Keep on teaching, Teacher!
Here is a little message you may never get, but you probably need to hear. Keep going! You are awesome! You are amazing! Keep on teaching and keep on making a difference, Teacher!
Love, Teacher
(c)DearTeacherLT2013 (You may use the image if you link back to the blog and/or give credit to Dear Teacher/Love Teacher)(c)DearTeacherLT2013 (You may use the image if you link back to the blog and/or give credit to Dear Teacher/Love Teacher)
Dear Teacher/Love Teacher 