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

 Greetings friends! Can you believe this is the last week before the holidays? Writing about my gifts of L.I.G.H.T has certainly made it go by fast, and keep me inspired to think of what gifts I can give to all of you.  Today we are focusing on the last two letters: H, and T.  I would like to start by giving H- the gift of Hope . Although hope can be a bit dangerous because it can indeed lead to disappointment. It's something that we need in order to keep us going- no matter what. It's what makes us work for a goal or strive to get something to begin with. Even when we can't reach the goal or get what we wanted, we have to somehow keep hope that we can get the next thing, or that we will learn where we went wrong and try to fix our mistakes. Perhaps hope has been misinterpreted and the purpose is to learn from it how to change and a lesson what to do differently. Hope is necessary, yet it can be a struggle to hold it, especially when we feel overwhelmed. As teachers the l...

 Welcome back my friends to my month of giving! I always want to share whatever gifts I can with my fellow educators. I hope you enjoyed the first gift in my series L- Love. This week I am going to share two gifts with you that I think you'll enjoy, but also agree we as educators need. This week, let's focus on the I- Inspiration, and G- Grace.  The second letter is  I-  inspiration or inspire . I personally feel somewhere in the dictionary that "inspire" is the first word that defines "teacher." A teacher's role is to inspire their students. Teachers also inspire other educators to keep going when they are having a rough time, and to keep learning.  The image that comes to mind is how quickly we reach out with our umbrella to share with others when they are in need. Let's do the same with inspiration! Teachers also inspire the world to love learning and continue to educate themselves, try new things, and to never give up. This week, let's take t...

 December is the month of giving. As teachers, this is nothing new for us. We give all day, every day. This month in particular, we have even more people on our list to give to. Question is, do we put ourselves on that list?  I decided this month I want to share a gift with all my fellow educators out there; the gift of L.I.G.H.T. Each week I will reveal what each letter stands for, and I hope it brings you joy!  This week I will reveal the first letter- L , The first gift is L- love. As teachers we love our students as if they are our own children. We love working with families and the communities we serve. We love the work we do, and put in countless hours trying to make our classrooms warm, inviting, and engaging places our students want to run in to, not run away from. We love our work so much, we forget to take the time to love ourselves. I want teachers everywhere this week to take a some time (whether it's an hour, a day, or even just a few minutes) to love them...

 Greetings teacher friends! I hope you all enjoyed your holiday! This week I want to take a moment to reflect how teachers are the "hosts" of their classrooms. If you've ever hosted any sort of holiday or celebration, you know the amount of time, energy, and thought it takes for it to be successful. Watching my mother host Thanksgiving every year for pretty much all of my life has given me a front row seat to this. When I was younger, I couldn't quite understand why she was exhausted after Thanksgiving (other than it must be the turkey like everyone else!) Now I have a clear understanding why she is tired for days after, and this has come from my own classroom experience. Teachers work countless hours to plan and prepare lessons that have clear objectives, meet required standards, are differentiated for all students in the classroom, and of course, have a fun and engaging theme or components so students want to participate. Beyond that, keeping the classroom clean, ha...