Finding Awesome
A Street Called Awesome by moonlightbulbThis post is for the educators out there, in any and all capacities — classroom teachers, administrators, specialists, librarians, aides, school building maintenance, bus drivers, all of the people who work in a position to influence and impact children’s lives.
So, real talk: Even before covid, it was not uncommon for teachers to be affected by burnout, right? And every summer, we’d all try to find ways to recover from the school year, refresh, take care of our needs and our families’ needs, and dig realllll deep to find the motivation to go back and do it all over again in the fall. Some years, that felt impossible. But every once in a while, you’re introduced to something that reignites your passion for what you do as an educator, something that reminds you of your “why.” Several years ago, for me, that came in the form of EdCamp, where I learned about the book Teach Like a Pirate, by Dave Burgess.
The Clif Notes version of those:
EdCamp is the most awsome way to do teacher professional development EVER. When teachers arrive, they post sticky notes with what they want to learn about; then those sticky notes are organized into a session calendar, and other attendees can choose to run a session if they have knowledge on that topic; then you attend the sessions you want. Tech is encouraged, interaction is encouraged, and learning comes naturally.
Teach Like a Pirate was, I think, the first book in what has grown into Dave Burgess’s empire. It’s what started the hoopla, it’s the original, the OG of the piratemania. It’s the book that changed my life as a teacher, and even though my role has changed over the past few years, I still refer to what I learned from this book to help me be a better educator and advocate for kids.
Now fast forward to post-covid (not to imply that it no longer exists, but, at least where I am, we are no longer locked down, and we have in-person school, and we’re in a kind of “new normal” that’s close to what it used to be but with added precautions and new trauma-response behaviors). I’m now a dyslexia therapist, which means my work with kids is different than it used to be in many ways. But that doesn’t mean I’m immune from teacher burnout. The past couple of years have been stressful, with changes out of our control and mandates left and right and new challenges to overcome. So this summer, I needed another Teach Like a Pirate moment, something that would do for me now what that book did for me back in 2012.
I had the opportunity to attend Learning Ally’s virtual Spotlight on Dyslexia conference. One of the speakers was Monica Genta, whom I’d not heard of before, so I’m late to the party on this one (but so glad I finally arrived). Any educator who has ever considered leaving the profession (and I hear there are quite a few of those now) needs to hear this inspirational woman speak. She talked about focusing on the good each day, because, as we all know, the not-so-good things that happen in the course of one school day can often overshadow the good things. And she talked about finding one awesome thing each day of the school year and writing it down, which she did … which became her book 180 Days of Awesome: Celebrating Every Day of Education (which is only one of many books she’s published, by the way).
Her story was so inspirational to me, her words so relatable, and her enthusiasm so contagious, that I am now on a mission to celebrate my awesome. My plan is, starting on Day 1 of the new school year, to read one day of Monica Genta’s 180 Days of Awesome each morning before my school day begins, and to let it set the tone for me to have the most awesome day ever! And maybe I’ll write down my own awesome thing each day as well. Maybe I’ll share it with my students and family, or maybe I’ll blog about it or do a quick Tweet about it. Whatever I end up doing, I can guarantee it will be AWESOME!
Go check out the links I’ve shared. No, I’m not getting paid! I’ve included them because I’m passionate about these things and they have impacted my life in a positive way. I hope they can impact yours as well. I am officially now excited for the fall and ready to get started planning the perfect school year! (I also now realize I’ve used way too many exclamation points, but I guess that’s what happens when you get excited about school.)