The last 4 minutes of my drive into work I’ve been blasting Hollaback Girl by Gwen Stefani… every.single.day. It’s definitely been my pump up anthem of the week… maybe the month! Me and my mind full of weirdness relate it to the turbulences of advocating for my students. I’ve never been a general education teacher so I don’t know if it’s the same, but every day I am constantly up against something– adults with different beliefs, the systems, lack of resources… you name it.
There are some things that I wish my values and morals would allow me to let go of. I’m starting to learn my brain and personality might just be wired this way. I’ve been on pursuit of finding healthy ways to embrace it and I think I’ve almost got it figured out.
When work starts to get overwhelming, it’s important to celebrate the tiny wins of each week. These are some of the tiny wins that keep my heart full!
- One of my fourth graders asked if she could stay in from recess to work on her writing project. After I agreed, I asked her to explain the project to me. With a little hip swing and hand-on-the-hip action the word BEYONCE filled our entire school.
- My kinder told me he used his thought bubble to punch 5 classmates instead of actually punch 5 classmates (this might be a huge win!)
- I’m teaching root words to my fifth grade literacy group. For our entry ticket, I printed an SAT question associated with the root we had been practicing. I didn’t even know what the question was asking or what any of the words meant. One of my boys of color, with ebd who has a history of hating school, read the question, struggled through the decoding… but made the connection that the question was talking about some sort of machine that writes, skimmed the A-D for a word that had graph in it, found it, and answered it correctly. He stood up, started dancing, and said “LATIN IS THE BEST!” He then went around the school quizzing different teachers and school staff… 1/7 got the answer correctly… something he answered correctly on the first time, just by using his logic and skills. He asked if we could work on roots instead of math later in the day, lol.
- When one of my students said, “SHE HAS THE SAME HAIR AS ME!!! SHE LOOKS LIKE ME!” when we were reading the book I am Enough.
With all the b.s we experience as teachers, it’s so important to capitalize on the little moments that help us recharge. If you’ve had a challenging week, try to write down the little light bulb moments you saw or the moments that made you smile. Those moments are truly enough to push through the hard moments 🙂
Outfit details below!
MONDAY D E T A I L S
TUESDAY D E T A I L S
WEDNESDAY D E T A I L S
THURSDAY D E T A I L S
FRIDAY D E T A I L S
Book: I Am Enough
Relax this weekend and focus on all the beautiful little moments of the week!
WITH KINDNESS | ASHLEY