I'm starting the third week of a brand new school year. There have been some growing pains, but I will talk about those another day. I want to talk about one of our back-to-school inservice meetings. Our principals shared about the book Soup by Jon Gordon. At one point, they would describe a characteristic of a good teacher, and ask our groups of four to name one of our colleagues who most represents that quality.
One characteristic that was mentioned was "visionary". We were asked to name a colleague who is always evolving and learning new things, striving to get better. I was touched that many of my colleagues named me. This is the kind of teacher that I want to be and that I try to be, but I haven't felt particularly visionary in the past year(s). Even this year is off to a rough and chaotic start.
In all fairness, I've had a lot of life happen outside of the classroom. Our now two-year-old son has had multiple surgeries to repair his cleft lip and palate. Then last spring our family grew by one more through what can only be described as a surprise adoption. The rare and special nature of how our family has grown is not lost on us, and we are thankful.
Being parents of three (particularly the two littles) is exhausting. Some days are all about survival. I'm going to cut myself some slack for my absence from blogging, but still . . .
I've been thinking about how this is the place where my vision began . . . The blogosphere is where I began to be more adventurous as a teacher . . . trying new things . . . writing about them . . . learning from others. I thought if I came back here it might trigger what I've been missing.
So here I am . . . inspired by my colleagues' perspective of me, inspired by a gentle nudge from @druinok a few months ago, and inspired by watching TMC17 from afar. I could spend a few more hours re-reading and editing this post, but instead I'll #pushsend.