Ms. M's Tales of a Teacher: My Personal Teacher Blog

 Greetings fellow teacher friends!  This week I wanted to share some short thoughts that I also shared in my inSpiration Sunday post on social media.  We are going to be hearing this phrase/question a lot this week "What are you grateful/thankful for?" In fact, we might even have students share their thoughts out on this as tradition has it. But let's face it friends, teaching is tough right now... I mean more than the usual level of tough. It can and is very easy to spiral into a trap where we feel hopeless and tired, and you know what? That is ok and natural! I often feel frustrated when people tell me to "look at the bright side of things" or "think of the positives instead" or "focus on doing what you can for your students." Well, I do that everyday... and I am allowed to feel discouraged and upset.  I would like to reframe our thinking for this idea, especially in light of the holiday this week. I have a file in my desk drawer at work ti

 Today I'm excited to talk about a favorite topic of mine- leadership! I've been listening to podcasts, reading, and attending conferences on leadership to learn more about it. In fact, the burning question for me really has been, what is leadership? There are so many definitions that suggest it's one specific thing or another, but is it really something that can be defined with exacts?  What I am learning from my own experience is that leadership is more of a mindset rather than a tangible or definable thing we can do. I'm learning to not put as much pressure on myself to leap right in, figure out what leadership is, and well, lead. I realized from great leaders that I can reframe my thinking and be a leader from starting small. As Dr. Terrie Noland says "lead from where you are."  Recently at the Spotlight on Literacy Leadership Conference I learned that it's the small steps we take that can truly make a difference. A great leader can come from anywhere

 

 Last week I shared out how powerful observing colleagues can be for practicing educators. This week, I want to keep that theme going for just a bit longer, but with a twist!  This past week I had the honor of presenting to the high school students who participate in the Tomorrow's Teachers program in my state. I was at my home base ( Kean University ) to present my work on family engagement. I was pleased to see that the students and their supervisor were happy with what I shared, and we had some time for hands-on work to get these future educators thinking about their future students, classrooms, and families. Of course, I also learned something!  It actually struck me a few days after when I saw a quote on social media: "Sometimes the greatest PD is the teacher down the hall"- Brian Aspinall from We are Teachers/ Education to the Core. As I mentioned in my blog last week, educators learn a lot from each other. The disheartening part is that we are not always provided t