It's the smell of newly sharpened pencils, the overwhelming satisfaction of trimming the laminate off your new posters, that brand new pack of neon Expo markers, filling in the calendar of your spiffy new planner, and the anticipation and excitement that goes along with wondering which smiling faces will fill those empty seats on Monday morning.
It's a new school year...a clean slate...a new beginning.
I was extremely fortunate to have been chosen to attend the Florida ECET2 Conference in St. Augustine a few weeks ago, and there were so many things that stayed with me long after I came home, that it would take a few blog posts to reflect on all of them. However, there was one particular thought that I have found myself coming back to over and over again, and as we begin this new school year, I feel like it's something my district and my school need to focus on. ECET2 stands for Elevating and Celebrating Effective Teachers and Teaching. I honestly feel that teachers are widely celebrated; we have an entire week of appreciation devoted to us, after all. That wasn't my "a-ha" moment. Instead, the word that jumps out at me like a giant blinking sign on the Vegas Strip is...elevating.
The sad truth is...our profession is dying out. More and more college graduates are choosing not to become teachers. Whether it be the pay, the horror stories they hear from others, or the amount of pressure and work that is piled on teachers to get their students ready for standardized tests, it doesn't matter. It makes my heart hurt. I consider my job to be the best job in the entire world, but I know many others don't feel that way. Not only are college graduates being turned off from teaching, but we have so many current teachers whose lights are beginning to dim.
They are burned out. They are losing sight of their why. They are feeling hopeless and alone. They are NOT elevated. They are NOT empowered.
I believe wholeheartedly that as a school, as a district, as a state, and as a nation, we need to start figuring out how to EMPOWER and ELEVATE teachers. We need to help them find their why....why did they choose this career path in the first place? We need to remind them of the fact that despite all of the politics, the workload, the pressure, and the testing, they have multiple eager, smiling, sweet faces waiting in their classroom everyday that need good teachers. It's about the kids, guys! I've said before, and I'll say it again...we need to get back to the root and the heart of teaching, which is the PASSION. In order to get back to the heart of teaching, we need to start working on our teacher leaders to empower and elevate the staff at their schools.
Think about this. If we spent more time on VALUABLE professional development to empower and elevate the teachers of America, and remind them of how we get to come to work everyday and help our babies grow, learn, and become well-rounded, productive members of society, well then...the grading, and parent phone calls, and evaluations, and meetings upon meetings, and state testing, and behavior issues, and learning scales, and all those things that burn us out on a daily basis...just won't seem that bad.
All that other junk won't seem that bad anymore because we will be focused and reminded of our WHY on a daily basis. To me, the chance to change and impact even one of my student's lives in a positive way is worth all the stress, time, and work. Every time I run into one of my former kids, or catch up with them on social media, and they tell me about the impact I had on them years ago, I am reminded of why I chose this career.
My kids empower and elevate me. My kids are my WHY. My kids are MY highly effective.
Now, I won't take credit for that last statement. At ECET2, I was fortunate enough to listen to one of the most incredible keynote speakers I've ever had the pleasure to witness. Dorina Sackman was the 2014 Florida Teacher of the Year. She shared her moving and powerful story with us, and it not only brought me to tears and made me laugh out loud, but it also resonated deep down in my soul. It stirred a monster that I felt had been laying dormant for a little too long. It brought my GRIT out like a roaring dragon, and that dragon is HUNGRY!
As a teacher leader in my school, one of my goals this year is to do whatever I can to empower and elevate my colleagues. I want them to be excited to come to work everyday, and I know that enthusiasm will pour over into their classrooms, and get the kids excited to learn. It's much more than just being a shoulder of support. It's about creating and implementing valuable, meaningful professional development, taking strides to boost morale and keep teacher turnover numbers low, and being their biggest cheerleader. Yes, there are many things about teaching that are difficult, time consuming, and hard to swallow, but the good SO outweigh the bad! Teachers need to be empowered to push their students to their highest potential, and become life long learners. It shouldn't matter what school you teach at, or how long you've been teaching, or what your evaluation results or state test scores say.
It doesn't take much to create a movement...and that's exactly what I'm going to try to do. I want to start a movement to EMPOWER and ELEVATE the teachers of Pasco County, Florida and the entire nation. It won't be easy, but I will not give up. I'm hoping my district and administration will support me with this endeavor, because if they want us to be the best teachers we can be...
Then they need to let us move. Give us what we need to move. LET US MOVE!
One of the best ways that we can start empowering and elevating teachers is to share our inspirational teacher stories with each other. It might be a story of how you overcame adversity and difficulty as a child, or how one of your teachers inspired you, or how one of your colleagues helped shape you as an educator, or even better, a story about how one of your students changed your life. At ECET2, I was fortunate to hear many teacher's stories, and every one of them embedded itself into my heart. Every one of them made me proud to call myself a teacher, and I walked away from the whole experience with a feeling of pure joy and a fierceness to come back to my school, and get my teach on!
I want to challenge all teachers out there to share your stories! Share them on my blog by commenting on this post, share them on your campuses, share them in your PLC meetings, share them with your students, share them via email and social media, and share them with each other every chance you get. There is nothing more empowering or elevating than hearing from other people who share your passion. People who can remind you when you need it the most, and you are on the verge of giving up, that WE MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
I will share my own story on my next blog post, and I can't wait to hear/read/experience some of yours. I would even love to feature some of them on future posts!
As this first week of the new school year comes to a close, it's going to be hard to fight through the pure exhaustion, fatigue, brain overload, and craziness that comes with a new beginning. You can do it. Those bright, eager little minds are ready for you to guide them, and push them, and fight for them. They are worth it. They deserve it.
They need you.
So, get empowered! Feel elevated! Start this new year with a whole new mentality. We are teachers, and we have the power to change the world.
One beautiful, hopeful, innocent child at a time.
