Small Steps Create Big Shifts

Whew.

Happy summer, friends. At the time I am sitting to write this post, I have been out of school for three weeks and am just starting to feel like I can string more than one or two sentences together. I recently saw a video posted by a teacher showing herself positively zoning out in different areas of her home, completely unable to shake the paralysis of the end-of-school-year shift into summer. By the end, she “snaps out of it” only to realize that she has neglected her home and now has mountains of mess to tackle. It is funny because… it really isn’t.

As the dust is settling in my own brain, I’ve come to realize that the excitement of building this website collided head-to-head with the final weeks of school. Not only did the progress move to the “back burner,” - the burner turned off! I think we’ve all been there, but I took it harder than I should have and started to doubt the worth of this effort. I hesitated and buried the adrenaline under layers of different feelings and excuses. I saw the few views on the page, the declining visits to my virtual store, and let myself feel embarrassed that I even started this.

Fast forward to a change in my medication, a good chat with a fellow teacher mom about parental and educator guilt combined, and a soul search that told me to be a little kinder to myself and have a little more patience…. I am here and ready to hold myself accountable, even if it only becomes a virtual journal for me during this journey.

Step number one: learn more about how my brain works and decide that science is real and medication is a tool. Check.

Step number two: Get a delicious coffee from a local coffee shop, find a rockin’ playlist, and drag my behind to my classroom to make some hard decisions about minimalization of materials. Done.

Step Three: Do a deep dive into my Teaching Blueprint to determine how to best organize materials based on the order they are used. Started.

Step Four: Remember that I am in this field because I am passionate about it, I know that my passion is needed, and that children, both personal and in our classrooms, need a regulated and calm adult before they need pinterest-worthy classrooms or experiences. On deck.