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

 Welcome to another week friends! Let's focus in on leadership this week, and reach beyond our realm of teaching by taking some great advice from a leader who always makes an impact on others who lead, and/or aspire to lead... John Maxwell.  As I scrolled through the episode selections I found one labeled "Leadership Landmines." Now, if you’re not familiar with the podcast, I highly recommend it because John Maxwell focuses on leadership for all, not just educators, but everything he discusses is relevant to what we do- no matter where we are in our leadership journey.  All leaders go through challenges- he terms these “leadership landmines.” To encourage you to listen and generate suspense, I will refrain from summarizing the first four. The fifth and final one, poor timing, stood out to me the most because timing for everything in education is crucial. As teacher leaders we are always racing against the clock, which can often lead to different roadblocks, yet sometimes ...

 Hello everyone! Welcome to another weekly blog post! I'm so glad you're here and I hope what I have to share with you this week helps you to think about your lifelong journey of learning as an educator, where you are in it, and where you may be going. In my blog last week I briefly mentioned this topic, so I knew this is what I wanted to talk about today with you.  Let’s dive into a special topic this week that is especially meaningful to me, and I hope it becomes more prominent for you- teacher mentoring and peer support.  A former co-worker once told me she felt that teaching was the most lonely job. Most teachers are in their classrooms with their students for more than six hours a day, and there is little interaction with others. Teachers know the latest childhood cartoons, or young adult conversations happening on social media, but even keeping up with news about what's happening in the building seems scarce.  It’s true that we can feel isolated and alone being...

 Hello friends! Welcome back! I hope you had a chance to enjoy the holiday weekend. I took a much needed break from writing so I could focus on other things, both related to teaching and not. I recently began my practicum (round two,) with IMSE, and to be honest, it's more intense than I anticipated! Feeling overwhelmed and needing time to get situated was my source of inspiration for my blog today. I want to be vulnerable with you because we all have things that make us stressed as teachers, and I'm not an exception to this by any means. This particular year I am starting my practicum work for my dyslexia specialist certification. Last year‘s experience was great and I had a lot more confidence because I had already experienced teaching these methods for many years. I am glad I went through the experience to become a C-SLDI (Certified Structured Literacy Dyslexia Interventionist.) But for me, I knew I didn't want to stop there.   Now that I am completing the second part...

 Welcome to October Friends!  We made it through the first month of school, and there's a lot to look forward to this fall. I've taken some time today to reflect on the first month of school and how it has been so far. I've also taken notes on what I liked and what worked and what I need to adjust as we head into the next month. I also have to be patient with myself and realize that I can't get everything done right away. I have a lot of ideas about things I'd like to start, but time and patience is the way. On the other hand I also know that in order to see my ideas come to life, I have to actually begin .  Recently someone  asked me: How did I get started writing a blog and share a weekly inspiration post? Frankly, I didn't remember at first, but then I thought about something I heard and learned from the John Maxwell Leadership podcast. When someone told him that they wanted to write a book, he asked them, "what have you written so far?" They said “...