My favorite Tarot Resources

Spread #5 - The Emperor

This week's spread turned out to be very personal. But I think it's important to share it with all of you. This is the following spread I created and the cards that were selected:

What is my area of weakness when it comes to classroom management? The Emperor
What is my area of strength when it comes to classroom management? The Wheel of Fortune
How can I improve my classroom management skills? The Knight of Cups

I was somewhat embarrassed that I pulled the Emperor card when it comes to my area of weakness in terms of classroom management at this time. But it's important to acknowledge this truth. I know that I used to be way too strict in the past, but this card is suggesting that maybe the pendulum has gone to far in the other direction. I know a large part of this is because I jumped right in the middle of the term in the middle of the year and I had some issues dealing with that. But ultimately, this card is suggesting that I need to step up more and regain my authority in the classroom. I'm not suggesting it is out of control or chaotic in my classroom, but I think I have been tapping into the energy of the Empress a bit too much, and I need to find a healthy balance between being too nurturing and too stern. I'm thinking of specific kids at this time who have been pushing the envelope a bit too much and instead of really putting my foot down and standing my ground, I have been a little lax with them and had tried to approach the situation from a more sweet and motherly perspective, which obviously isn't working. I pulled these cards in the morning, and I remembered it when they were goofing off while I was trying to talk again. So this time I just kept cool, but moved all three to different tables in the room and they kept quiet for the duration of my presentation. So I acknowledge that I haven't been strict enough in some cases, but now that I am more aware of it, I can do something about it!

But I do have some strengths when it comes to classroom management. I am able to take the good with the bad and I realize that when it comes to kids, expect the unexpected. So having learned that everything happens in cycles and that sometimes things are out of my control really helps me keep perspective and keep a cool and level head. The Wheel of Fortune is also not a card of passivity. So when unexpected challenges do arise, I address them and face them head on. I don't continuously let problems build and build and hope they go away.  So this card is pointing out that I am able to roll with the punches while still facing obstacles and working to overcome them.

The Knight of Card was an interesting card pop up in the "how can I improve" category. A lot of people view this card in a romantic way. However, in this particular instance it is about getting in touch with my emotions and intuition. I need to explore more in depth the feelings that arise with classroom management. How do I feel when I have to reprimand someone? How can I find a different way to make my point come across? I honestly hate having to put kids on the spot and reprimand them in front of the class. This card also represents creativity and needing to get it out of my head and heart and put it into action. So as a whole, I think this card is suggesting I evaluate the way I feel about classroom management, get in touch with my intuition and envision how I would like things to go in my classroom, and to come up with creative ways to handle situations that arise in my classroom. So I will definitely be thinking about adjustments I want to make as we end this term and prepare for the next term.

If you aren't too shy to share, I would love to hear what came up for you when you tried this spread. I also would love to know any tips you can offer, if you have any great practices for classroom management.

All my best,

Amy

The Emperor - The Card of Classroom Management

I am pretty excited for this week's post because I feel that the Emperor is a great card when it comes to teaching. Last week's post was all about nurturing and it had a real maternal quality to it, but this week it's all about the art of classroom management.

As teachers, but especially as new teachers, we often struggle with classroom management. Some of us, like me, start off overly strict and really take the saying "don't let them see you smile until June" to heart. This can lead to division in the classroom and create a "them against me" mentality. While others try to take a more relaxed approach and come off more like a friend, which can have it's own unpleasant consequences, like the first time you have to say no to a student and they feel completely betrayed by their "pal."

But whether you have a problem with classroom management or not, we can definitely learn a lot from the Emperor. First of all, this is a card that represents authority, control, and leadership. As the leaders with the ultimate authority in our classrooms, we need to make sure that we lead in a fair and balanced way. It can be very easy for your classroom to turn into a dictatorship if you are too rigid or a completely chaotic situation if you are too lax. The Emperor is here to remind you about what it means to be a good leader.

When you think about rulers from history or fairy tales, the most beloved and successful ones were the ones who loved and cared for their people and who wanted what was best for them. Being a ruler is a huge responsibility and it isn't about being the ones with all the power, but about being the one who uses that power for the good of the people. So ultimately, being a leader is about being of service to others. And in our case, we need to be of service to our students.

Since we are the ones in control, we do need to do our best to maintain order in our classrooms so that students can feel safe, secure, respected, and valued. We can't be so hostile that students are afraid to speak to us or are afraid of making a mistake for fear of being screamed at or embarrassed, yet nor can we be so permissive that it is practically a free for all and no learning is taking place.

It's all about leading with dignity. Think about the people you respect and admire that are in a position of power. The ones that come to mind for me set high expectations and make them clear. They are also willing to lend a helping hand and offer advice and guidance if I get stuck. They smile a lot and approach challenging situations with positivity and a sense of humor. They are able to think outside the box in order to solve problems. They make others feel at ease and are good listeners. They delegate tasks fairly and don't overburden others with unmanageable amounts of work. These are the attributes of a good leader.

Now take a moment to think honestly about yourself and ask yourself the following questions:
Do I assign too much homework? Too little?
Do I yell at my students or threaten them to get them to comply?
Do I let my students get away with talking while I am talking?
Do I never smile or crack a joke? Do I joke around to often almost to the point of being inappropriate?
Do I make sarcastic remarks when I am annoyed? Do I pretend not to hear or see a student saying or doing something they shouldn't?
Am I harsh when I confront students? Do I not confront at all?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, it may be time to evaluate your leadership abilities. Try to set some goals for improvement and work on them until they become habits.

For example, when I first started teaching, I believed in assigning homework over breaks because that is what I had experienced as a student (even though I hated it, and if I'm honest, I usually didn't do it or a did a crappy job on it the night before it was due). Not only did I assign work, but I usually assigned them a book to read on their own with a ton of comprehension questions to answer. Then I would be totally incensed when students either didn't turn it in or turned in low-quality work. This would lead to major power struggles because they would be mad at me for assigning a ton of work when they wanted to have fun and I would be mad at them for not doing what I told them to do. This is not good leadership at all. I had to take a step back and evaluate my practices. And you may or may not agree with this, but I stopped assigning work over breaks. Why? Because I feel that everyone deserves a break - the students and me. And now that I am a parent, I see it from a new perspective. When my sons are in school, I won't want them bogged down with work over breaks because then I will have to yell at them to get work done or it will just take time away from the time I want to be spending having fun with them. So now that I don't assign work over breaks, I feel it is win win for everyone. I also stopped giving homework every night including weekends. Now I give homework 2-3 times a week and it is concise and more important MEANINGFUL. Homework shouldn't be about keeping students busy after school. It should be about having them think about the material and having them work with it independently. If people are interested, I teach ELA and I would be more than happy to share the types of homework assignments I give. Sure I still have some students that refuse to do homework, but the majority of my students complete homework for me now.

So if you want to work with the energy of the Emperor card, you really need to assess your leadership abilities and determine if you are a fair leader or not. It's not about wanting to be loved, it's about developing a classroom climate that is built on respect. The more respect and care you show for your students while maintaining order, the more they will respect you and do the work you assign. Classroom management can be one of the toughest parts of teaching besides time management, but if you can get a handle on it, it will make your life easier and you will find true joy in this profession.

All my best,

Amy

Weekly Tarot Reading for Jan 27-January 31

My journey with Tarot

Spread #4 - The Empress Spread for Teachers

So I decided to keep this week's spread short and sweet. Since I talked mostly about The Empress having to do with  being creative and nurturing in the last post, I figured it would be best to focus our spread on those two aspects. So here we go!

How can I be more creative? The Magician
How can I become more nurturing? Death

First of all, it is amazing to me how many of these spreads I've done on the blog have contained Major Arcana cards. I plan on doing a video soon about my thoughts on this.

How can I be more creative?

But it is totally unsurprising to me that the Magician would appear for our creativity category. When I look at this card I can almost transport him into a classroom and instead of seeing him holding his wand, I envision him holding a piece of chalk (or a dry erase marker). I look at him surrounded by his tools and feel inspired by his ability to make magic out of what he has in front of him. That's exactly what we are called to do. We must make magic out of our resources. We must mesmerize our students with our passion for our subject matter and by presenting that information in fun and interesting ways. When I think of the magician, I remember being a kid at a birthday party or a festival watching the magician in awe at his ability to pull a rabbit out of his hat or saw a person in half. Even last summer, I took my son to an amusement park and we went to see a magic show, and I observed the look of amazement on the faces of all the children (and even the adults) as the magician performed his tricks. I know for myself, I would love to have my students look at me with that same kind of wonder and be totally engrossed in my lessons!

When I was a rookie teacher, a veteran teacher told me that teaching was mostly acting. I was offended by this at the time because I felt like if I wanted to be an actor, I would have become an actor and gone into movies and made way more money. I didn't become a teacher so I could "perform on a stage" for my students. I just wanted to present the material and have them learn it. As I think back on that, I wish I could talk to my rookie teacher self and let her know that she had it all wrong!  As a teacher, showmanship is just as important as knowledge. What good is having the knowledge if your students aren't truly grasping the material? And when I look at the Magician, I see the ultimate showman.

So how can we be more creative? We need to get in touch with our inner showman. We need to design lessons that will catch our audience's attention. We need to take our resources - our textbooks, our white boards, our index cards, our computers, etc. - and make magic with them. So really take some time to meditate on how you can make magic in your classroom. It may require you to step out of your comfort zone, but the results will be worth it!

How can I be more nurturing?

I know that the Death card can make new readers feel uncomfortable. But I want to assure you that there is nothing negative about this card, especially in this reading. The Death card represents endings and transitions. Like our own literal deaths, our souls will transition from our physical bodies to a more ethereal plane of existence. The transitions we face with the Death card do not have to be painful and in fact, besides being necessary and unavoidable, can also be a welcome change.

What this card says to me is that in order to be more nurturing, a part of me has to die. And that part of me is limiting beliefs. This is really true because I have already been noticing my former beliefs about teaching transforming right before my eyes. So I feel this card is asking us to sit down and look very closely (and even write down) our current beliefs about teaching. Are those beliefs in alignment with the energy of the Empress? Are they in alignment with being compassionate and nurturing? If not, it's time to adjust those beliefs - thus, letting your old beliefs die out and creating a space for new ones.

For example, I know that my former teaching practices were not in alignment with compassion and nurturing. I was very rigid and had very strict beliefs about how I was the authority and the students were there to listen to me and do as I said. When students were rude or disrespectful, lazy or apathetic, unprepared and unorganized, I had no patience for any of that whatsoever. I took it personally and developed a very "them against me" mentality. Thankfully, I matured and grew and let go of those limiting beliefs and developed new ones. Now I see teaching as a partnership. I see it as my duty to guide students to be more polite, productive, and focused. It is my role to model the behaviors I want to manifest in my students. And I can see how learning from the Magician would help me to be the teacher I knew I could be. So to be more nurturing, I had to let my old ways die that kept me from truly connecting with my students and letting them feel valued and appreciated - and that is what the Death card is all about!

I would love to know what cards come up for you in this reading. So please feel free to share in the comments section below!

The Empress - Nurturing Your Students

So this week is all about The Empress. I have read many tarot books over the years and at one point I came across a great phrase to describe what this card is all about - creative abundance!

At this point in our journey, we have taken a leap of faith, gathered our materials, looked within, and now it is time to create and nurture!

The Empress is all about creation. If you look closely at the card you will see creation all around: the harvest of wheat, the green trees, and the pregnant Empress herself. Being creative is key if you want to be a successful teacher.

It is not enough to know your subject matter inside out and to have passed the teacher tests that say you qualify to be a teacher. You must have passion and creativity. Gone are the days when teachers could just stand and lecture while the students furiously wrote down what their teachers were saying so that they could regurgitate it on their next exams. Although there is debate about how effective current teaching practices are, I truly believe in the time-tested truth that if you bring passion for your subject matter and can build strong, nurturing relationships with the students, that you will be a successful teacher! This is the time to tap into the energy of The Empress.

One education practice that I think really taps into the energy of The Empress is backward design. The basic premise is that you establish your outcome learning goals first and then go back and design your lesson plans to align with those goals. Other creative educational practices include active learning, cooperative learning, and multiple intelligences. It is crucial to find creative ways to make the learning come alive for your students. It doesn't happen overnight, but you want to develop a bag of tricks that you can rely on throughout your career. Some things that have worked well in my English classes include: debates, fishbowls, jigsaws, carousel walks, body biographies, tableaux, 4 corners, and interviews. If you don't have many fun activities developed yet, I highly recommend looking up some of the strategies mentioned or Google searching active learning strategies. I garuantee that you will find the more creative and fun your lessons are, the more your students will engage with the material - thus learning even more! Feel free to message me for more active learning ideas!

The other aspect of The Empress is her role as a nurturer. I have a garden stone with a beautiful saying that goes, "teachers plant the seeds that grow forever." I feel that this saying ties in nicely with the message of The Empress. She is a mother figure and when we think of mothers we usually think of nurturers. And when you look at the card and see all of the nature imagery, it is easy to connect how our students are like little seeds and if we nurture them and provide them with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed, then we will reap a harvest of wonderful young people who will grow up to do amazing things! But on top of providing them with knowledge and skills, we also offer them support and guidance as they navigate through childhood and adolescence. We are their role models for appropriate and professional behavior. They look to us to teach them how to become not just good students who will become productive workers, but also how to become good and decent people.

This card also reminds me of the impact that we have on students when we treat them with kindness and nurturing. For example, I was thinking about this post last week and it just so happens that as I was about to teach one of my classes, one of my students from last year popped her head in the door. I gave her a warm smile and asked "how's it going? Are you still here?" Because last I knew, she was going to be expelled from all of her suspensions from the previous year. She just smiled and said "yes, I'm still here and I'm doing awesome. I'm even on the honor roll!" I congratulated her and told her I knew she could do it. Then just as she was about to leave she announced to my class, "Mrs. B. is awesome. She's the only one who ever said anything nice about me."

That really caught my attention about how much of an impact we have on our students. I know it can be challenging when a student is making bad choices and getting on our last nerves, but I do think it is imperative that we always try to see the best in our students. We aren't perfect people and we would want people to see the best in us. Plus, if their parents and teachers don't see their value, how will they?

So if you really want to work with the energy of this card, keep two things in mind: be creative in your lessons and always choose love.

"People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel." - Maya Angelou

All my best,

Amy

Tarot by Numbers: The Aces

Here is the first video of my new series Tarot by Numbers. I will be taking you through the Minor Arcana and looking at all the suits one number at a time. I am mostly comparing/contrasting the images and just making general observations. For a more thorough explanation of how to read Tarot, I suggest you subscribe to The Four Queens channel on youtube. Thanks for watching!

The High Priestess Spread: Revealing the Unknown

 Since the High Priestess card is all about hidden knowledge, I thought I would create a quick spread to become more aware of things I may have been blind to recently. Of course, once I picked my cards I knew this wouldn't be a quick reading. The vibe I got from my cards was very heavy and serious. You should also be aware of any gut reactions or feelings that pop up when you first look at your cards in a reading. These intuitive emotions will really guide you on the right path of interpreting your cards.


What is hidden about my situation that I need to become more aware of? Justice
How can I become more aware? The Hermit

The Justice card always has very serious implications for me. This card represents the law, balance, truth, and fairness. We usually associate this with our court of law. As someone who always follows rules and laws and takes truth and equity very seriously, this card always feels so intense when I see it in a reading for myself.

I need to be more aware of the consequences of my actions and I really need to become aware of how equity really plays out in my classroom. The sword represents the decisions and actions I make and the balance represents the equity. As the person on the throne, I am in charge not only of being the judge, jury, and  an executioner to my students, but I must also be a role model of someone who is fair, rational, and impartial. However, at the same time, things can't always be fair and balanced in the traditional sense. Sometimes you can't apply the same "laws" in all situations. Sometimes you need to takes things on a case by case basis and really take in all of the facts before making a judgement.

So what might this actually look like in my classroom?

For example, I have a grading policy and homework counts for X amount. I also have a policy on having homework with you physically in the class at the time I am collecting it. But I also teach 8th graders. And responsibility, maturity, and focus are some of their biggest challenges as their brains are changing and developing. In my early years as a teacher, I was completely rigid. If you stepped into my class, you better have had your homework or too bad. I didn't want to hear sob stories of "I left it in my locker" or "I forgot it in my last class." Everything with me was very black and white. I had no time or energy to deal with shades of gray. As a result, the energy in my classroom wasn't great. I had my students' fear, but I didn't really have their respect. They didn't feel valued as people and individuals and I'll admit I just saw them as students whose job it was to comply with my demands and follow my rules and regulations to the letter. As I've gotten older and wiser, I've learned to develop better relationships with my students based on respect and understanding. That doesn't mean I let them get away with everything, but it does mean that it is my job to treat them all fairly by treating them as individuals and guiding them on the right path to make good choices without just marking them down in my grade book for making typical childhood mistakes.

Another way this could manifest is in terms of the role educators play as mediators in their classrooms. Middle school students are pretty volatile as the amygdala in their brains takes center stage at this time. As a result, they often get into fights with students and their teachers over seemingly petty things from time to time. As the adult, it is my job to be rational and reasonable and to hear both sides of the story during a student vs. student argument  and to keep perspective when a  student is unhappy with me. This can be challenging as I am still a human being with my own emotions to deal with, but nevertheless I must keep my head and be the voice of reason.

So I think the Justice card is asking me to take the time to really sit down once again and reevaluate how I conduct business in my classroom. Maybe I need to reevaluate my grading policy or my classroom procedures. Or maybe I need to be more aware of the classroom dynamics at play among my students and really observe how they interact with one another. This way I can see who is displaying signs of bullying behavior or who is showing signs of being overly sensitive and taking offense when none is meant.

So how can I be more aware? This is where my good friend The Hermit comes in. I really enjoy this card and not just because he represents my sun sign Virgo. This is the wise sage who trusts his inner wisdom and follows his beacon of light. He is often reclusive and likes to be alone to follow his own individual path. I also feel he leads by example.

So what this suggests to me is that I need to make more time to do some soul-searching and to really look deep inside myself for the answers. The justice situation in my classroom can only be handled by my own introspection. Now is not the time to get advice from other teachers and administrators. These are my students, the ones I see every day. Even the teachers on my team who share the same kids don't have the same 30 kids in a classroom, so their dynamics are different from mine. So I need to silently observe and then find my own answers and my own truth. This time of evaluation needs to happen every year, as I will never have the same dynamics as I will have a totally different set of personalities in front of me next year!

The Hermit is also a deeply spiritual card. So I can't rely on what I have learned in books and from others regarding this situation. Instead, I must rely on my own experiences, my own emotions, and follow my own path.

So the High Priestess spread is not a fast and easy spread. This is a spread that needs special attention as you will be digging deep into what is going on underneath the surface of your teaching. So I recommend carving out some special time to do this reading where you can have peace and quiet to be reflective. I hope you get very insightful guidance.

All my best,

Amy

The High Priestess or "College Didn't Prepare Me for This"

When I see The High Priestess card I am immediately brought back to my earliest days of teaching. I remember very early in the school year of my first year teaching I had a conversation with someone and I said something along the lines of "college certainly didn't prepare me for this."

The Magician Card represents all the preparation you do when becoming a teacher. You study the theory, you write papers, and you even practice your skills during your student teaching practicum. Yet, nothing, absolutely nothing, can truly prepare you for what it will really be like when it us just you and your students in that classroom. All of a sudden theory goes out the window and it's time to get real!

The High Priestess is the card you need to turn to on that next step in your journey. This card represents intuition, mystery, and the subconscious mind. As you deal with stacks of paper piling up, students not responding to your commands, and feeling abandoned or even threatened by administrators, it is time to turn to the only thing you can depend on. And it's not in any books. It's in you. It is you.

When you start to feel the chaos that comes with being a teacher, it is time to go inward and to connect with your intuition and higher self. You became a teacher because you felt it was your life's purpose. Trust those feelings.

The High Priestess card is inviting you to join her. Look how peaceful and relaxed she looks as she holds her scroll of hidden knowledge. She wants to share that knowledge with you. She is here to guide you and assist you.

How the High Priestess Can Help:
 1. Dreams
As silly as it may sound, keep a dream journal. Our dreams are the keys to tapping into our unconscious and getting in touch with our highest potential. I highly recommend reading the works of Carl Jung for more information on this. But doing dream work can really help you develop your intuition.
2. Meditation
Even if this sounds too new-agey for you, it really works. Meditation is the perfect "time-out" for when life gets too stressful. If you can't imagine being able to sit in silence that long, I recommend trying yoga, especially kundalini yoga. I have been practicing it for over a year and it has really transformed my life. I can use the breathing exercises during my prep period or even between classes if necessary.

The bottom line is that you need some kind of quiet connection to yourself, whether it is through dream work, meditation, or even taking a walk by yourself. By getting quiet, you can finally hear yourself and get the answers you need to make your situation better.

Teaching is not an easy job. It is very complex as you strive to balance lesson planning, implementing the lessons, and grading assignments. Then you have to deal with 30 different personalities a day if you teach elementary school and potentially 150+ personalities if you teach middle school or high school. It is a LOT to navigate and you will never have all of the answers. But the point is, you have many of the answers inside of you.

What works for other teachers may not work for you. The High Priestess is inviting you to go within to find your own style and what will work for you. So take some time out to just sit, relax, and listen to your gut feelings. They won't steer you wrong.

Weekly Tarot Reading January 13-January 17

Friday Reflection: Four of Pentacles

Every morning I wake up at 4:30am and sit down at my dining room table with my cards, my tarot journal, and a cup of English breakfast tea. I shuffle my deck as I slowly start to become more awake and focus my intention on finding out what message I need as I start a new day. It is VERY rare that I draw the same card more than once during a week, but this week I pulled the Four of Pentacles and decided that I needed to write about this particular card. So here we go...

First of all, I would like to say that I think the Four of Pentacles gets a bad wrap. A lot of people look at this card and all they see is a person who is miserly or too caught up with wealth and possessions. But I see this card much differently, especially as a teacher.


Some of the traditional key words for this card include control and possession, but the word that popped into my head as I looked at this card while drinking my tea on both Monday and Tuesday was protection. Protection has a totally different vibe to me than possession. And as a teacher, I think we need to be particularly protective of our time and inner resources. Speaking for myself, I am the type of person who likes to take breaks during the day. So whenever I have a prep period, you can usually spot me walking down the hall. There isn't necessarily anything wrong with taking a walk, it can be a great way to relax after a stressful class or to clear your mind, but the problem for me comes in the form of stopping to talk. I'm a social butterfly and if I run into someone and they ask me about my kids, I can stop and talk for as long as they will let me. This isn't really the best use of my prep period though.

This card is warning me that I need to protect myself from myself! If my goal is to work at work and play at home, then I need to make every second that I am at work count. I still allow myself time to exchange pleasantries, but I keep it to a five minute maximum. Aside from talking during my prep time, I can also get distracted from the task at hand even when I am by myself. All of a sudden I will get a new idea and I will start researching or doing something else unrelated to the task at hand. So I've started implementing a new system that has helped me tremendously. It's not my own original idea. I got it from Leonie Dawson. You should check her out if you need help with goal setting. She is just brilliant.

But what I learned from her is to implement the 3 MIT's: (3 Most Important Tasks). So every morning when I sit down at my desk, I write down the 3 most important tasks that I need to finish by the time the dismissal bell rings. This has increased my production exponentially! It helps me keep focused and organized. When I cross off my tasks I feel accomplished and energized. So I highly recommend trying it out and seeing how it works for you.

So once again, the four of pentacles gets a bad wrap in my opinion. His message to me is to protect my time so that I can maximize my time at work so that I can spend more time at home doing other things that I love besides teaching. Like hanging out with my family and blogging! :)

Have a great weekend, everyone!

All my best,

Amy

Spread #2: The Magician Spread for Teachers

The Magician Spread I have designed invites us to get resourceful and look deeper at our creativity and passions, our emotions and relationships, our thoughts and communication skills, and our physical surroundings and physical work.

I am sitting here laughing because I shuffled this deck so thoroughly and I cut the deck in several places as I chose my cards and yet the cards I picked, well...look for yourself!

The Wand (creativity/passion): The Magician
The Pentacle (classroom/work): 8 of Pentacles
The Cup (emotions/relationships): The Fool
The Sword (thoughts/communication): The High Priestess

So yes, I do find it funny that three out of the four cards I pulled are the first three cards in the Major Arcana, but I feel they make absolutely so much sense for me.

So let's tackle the Magician first since he has to do with my passion and creativity. So I'm getting ready to go back to work from an extended maternity leave. I am using my last free week to gather some materials for some fun activities that I want to do in my first few weeks. I am starting in the middle of a term, so I need to be creative in terms of using that time to get to know my students while still keeping them on track with what they have been learning this unit. So I went to Home Depot to buy some craft paper so that we can do body biographies of the characters they have been analyzing this term. My goal is to get to know my students while they are getting to know their characters better. So I am tapping into Magician energy by gathering up my resources, creating some fun lesson plans, and goal setting. So this card is showing me that I need to focus my energy, creativity, and passion and organize them coherently so that I can manifest wonderful things in my classroom for my students.

Next we have the 8 of Pentacles when thinking about my physical classroom and the work I will be doing. The 8 of Pentacles depicts a man at a work bench who is busy at his craft. It actually resembles an assembly line.  This is a card of hard work and attention to detail. Look how engaged he is with his work! This is exactly how I need to be. When I'm in the classroom, I need to have my A game on and be completely engrossed with the lesson at hand and with my students. I can't be thinking about my to-do list, wondering what my kids are up to, wondering what I should make for dinner, or predicting who will be the next Supreme on American Horror Coven. I really need to get focused and feel connected to what I am doing when I am at work. I also like how he is chiseling in this card. It makes me think of how I will be writing on my white board and developing my bulletin boards.

The Fool card is so appropriate for the Cups position. I have been feeling a lot of anxiety about jumping into teaching in the middle of the school year. I am plagued with negative feelings that the kids will prefer their long term sub to me and won't connect with me. But the Fool is telling me to take that leap of faith, to trust that the kids will give me a chance, and to build my relationship with them from an emotional place of optimism and excitement. Instead of feeling worried about jumping in during the middle of the year, I should reframe it and look at it from the perspective that we will all be getting to know each other in the new year! So we can all reinvent ourselves, set new goals, and be whoever we want to be. This is also a positive card for my students because I will be meeting them with fresh eyes and with no preconceived notions about them. I opted not to be filled in while I was gone about particular students, so if some students had a rough start, well, now is their chance to start over fresh and make positive changes with a teacher who doesn't know their past mistakes! So it's win/win for everyone as long as we all maintain positive and optimistic attitudes.

The High Priestess card in the Swords position really speaks to me on a deep level. To me, this is a card about stillness, meditation, hidden knowledge, spirituality, and inner wisdom and power. I look at her as the female Hermit in many ways. Except unlike the Hermit, who goes inward in a way that causes him to be reclusive, the High Priestess goes inward in a way that still connects her to the world around her. Since this position in the spread is all about my thoughts and communication skills, this card is a reminder to really think before I speak. It is also telling me that I need to listen more, not just to my own inner wisdom and intuition, but to my students. I need to get in touch with the hidden knowledge of my students. I need to pay attention to their stories if I want to connect with them on a deep level that will benefit their learning. If I know my students well enough, then I will really understand their needs and learning styles. Differentiated learning  is a teaching philosophy that is becoming very mainstream. This card is suggesting that I follow my intuition, learn my student's learning styles and help them become self aware of their own learning styles, and then communicate my lesson plans to them in a variety of ways to connect with every one of my students.

So that is the Magician Spread in a nutshell. I hope you give it a try and let me know what you learned about yourself as a teacher in doing so.

All my best,

Amy

The Magician - Getting Resourceful

When I look at the Magician card, I am instantly filled with awe. I see a person who knows what he or she wants and is gathering the proper tools to go after it. This is a card of will power and of taking the first steps towards manifesting one's dreams. For our purposes, this person is taking the first steps towards becoming a teacher.

What the Magician tells us about becoming a great teacher:

Here we see the Magician with his tools: the wand, the pentacle, the cup, and the sword. Let's take a closer look and see what these tools have to teach us.

The wand - This item represents our passion and creativity. It is that divine spark in us that allows us to be dynamic in the classroom. Without the wand, we would all be standing in front of a classroom reading from a guidebook and making the kids copy information from the board day in and day out. The wand reminds us that we have the power to make our curriculum come to life for our students. We must be passionate about our subjects and find the ways to help out students become passionate about their learning.

The pentacle - This item represents the physical and material realm. We have to make our curriculum concrete for the students to truly grasp. We also need to make sure that our classrooms are a true haven for learning: provide the right books, tools, materials, and resources for the students to really engage in the learning process.

The cup -This item represents our emotions and our relationships. It's not enough to love our subjects, we have to love people and building strong relationships with them. Our students look to us for guidance and support, so it is up to us to model positive behaviors and interactions with others.

The sword -  This item represents the intellect and communication. We have to truly know our subject matter inside and out and to always keep current on the latest information. We also need the skills to communicate our subjects clearly to our students so that they can understand us.

So how does this apply to the teacher's journey? 

You might be a Magician if:

• You are taking college classes or professional development classes
• You are getting ready for the first day of school
• You are designing a unit

And once again, even if you have been teaching for years, the lessons of the Magician can still apply to you. The Magician is all about your will power and your desire to manifest a thriving learning community in your classroom, despite any obstacles that may pop up along the way.  You just need to gather your resources and remember that you have everything you need inside of you to become a great teacher!

How can the Magician Card help me on my journey? Take the card and meditate on the following:

1.  Remember that to be a great teacher, you must take the first steps to focus on your goals. You have the will and the drive, but you need to focus that energy to be successful. So get organized, start keeping a teacher planner, start planning your amazing units!
2. You need to be resourceful. It's not enough to have the desire to teach, you need to have: passion and creativity (wand), a strong hold on your subject matter (sword),  an inviting and caring personality (cup), and proper teaching materials (pentacles)
3. I like to think of the Fool as the initial seed of an idea and the Magician as the gardener. Look at the roses in the picture. Your students are seeds and it is your job to help them bloom to their fullest potential. So think about how you will achieve those results!

 What are the challenges this card presents?

This is solely my opinion on the potential negative aspects of the card. I see a lot of great things when I look at this card, but I also see the potential for arrogance and narcissism. Yes, we are the teachers imparting wisdom to our students, but we shouldn't assume that we know everything and that our students have little to teach us. We also shouldn't use the classroom as our own platform to spout off about our own personal opinions about politics and religion. Students are very impressionable and it isn't our place to place our views on them and to make them accept it as gospel. Instead, we should be teaching our students how to think for themselves.

Things to think about: 

This card is a great reminder of our personal power. When I look at this card, I get a boost in confidence in my abilities. Look how confident he looks holding that wand! We need to feel equally confident holding our chalk (or in these modern times, a dry erase marker)! So when you feel lost or as if you are flying by the seat of your pants, take some time to sit down with this card and get connected to his powerful, confident, and magical energy. Use this card to set clear goals, to get organized, and to believe in yourself. The magic you will create in your classroom will be worth the effort.

Until next time.

All my best,

Amy

Weekly Tarot Reading for January 6, 2014

Spread #1: The Fools Spread for Teachers

Welcome back! Before I start, I would just like to discuss with you how I typically read for myself. There are a lot of tarot readers out there who create large and elaborate spreads like the Celtic Cross, but I am not one of them. I find large spreads to be a tad bit overwhelming at times and definitely time consuming most of the time! As a teacher, you know how precious time is and how very little we have of it for ourselves most days. So for the most part, I usually do a daily draw of one card per day and incorporate some small 2-4 card readings as needed. So don't feel that you have to create large spreads to get the most bang for your buck. The key is to make your spread as specific as possible.

So this spread is to help us connect or reconnect with the energy of the Fool. It doesn't matter how long you have been a teacher for. I think it is important, especially when you are feeling a bit burned out, to get in touch with why you wanted to go into teaching to begin with! So let's get started!

Amy's Two Card Fool's Spread for Teachers:

Card #1 What most excites me about being a teacher?
Card #2 What should I trust most about myself as I start this journey as a teacher? (Remember, this can apply to anyone no matter how many years you've been a teacher!)

Here is what turned up for me when I did this reading for myself!

 

This reading really made me laugh at first, which is probably weird to some of you who may not be familiar with the cards. I'll try to explain the best I can.

So apparently what excites me most about teaching is the 4 of cups. The cups represent relationships and emotions. The keywords for this card are boredom and stagnation.

Um, Amy, how can you be excited about a card that means boredom and stagnation?

Ah, this is where we get to the heart of tarot reading! It's not enough to memorize a bunch of meanings from a book. Yes, there is a standard of meaning that can't be completely deviated from, but let me show you how it works. The biggest thing to remember is to use your intuition based on the symbols in the card. So what stands out to me is the cup being offered to a young man who is looking bored and very closed off. Hmmm, looking bored and very closed off, who could that be? Why a teenage student of course! 

So what excites me most about teaching is building relationships and offering support to difficult students. I am the floating hand offering a cup of support and guidance to my more challenging students. Sure those same students can really tick me off sometimes, but if I am connecting with the energy of the Fool, I am remembering why I wanted to come into teaching. 

When I was in 8th grade, I knew I wanted to be a teacher. I loved learning, but I didn't really like school. I was bullied a lot and I was very shy. I was so shy that I was willing to take my first F on a project because it required me to recite a poem aloud to my class. Well, my teacher, that angel of a man, allowed me to recite the poem just for him alone for a B grade. He told me I could get an A if I recited it to the class. I opted for the B, but I never forgot his kindness. We are still in touch to this very day. So I knew that that was the kind of teacher I wanted to be - compassionate and kind to students who were going through tough times. 

The 9 of swords was a little bit more challenging for me to understand at first. Right now in my journey as a teacher, I am ending my maternity leave that began at the beginning of the school year and returning to work in the middle of term 2. The suit of swords represents thoughts and communication. The keywords for the 9 of swords are worry and anguish which is clearly depicted by the character sitting up in bed with his face in his hands. I think it is perfectly appropriate for me to be having some anxiety about going back to work when the kids are used to their substitute teacher.

So how is a card about anxiety something you should trust about yourself?  This doesn't seem positive at all!

On the contrary, I think this card is giving me great advice. This card is telling me that I should expect to have some level of anxiety,  but that I should trust myself in knowing what is worth losing sleep over and what isn't. In fact, this can apply to many teachers! I know I am guilty of losing sleep and stressing out about things that are beyond my control: the decisions of administrators, MCAS results, new laws and programs that I will need to follow and participate in whether I agree with them or not. You can really drive yourself nuts over things that are in your periphery. So this card is a reminder to trust that I know the difference between what is worth worrying about (like grading 150 essays, creating an amazing lesson plan, and connecting with that challenging student) and what is not worth stressing over (like the new evaluation system and if the copy machine will be working when I need to make my copies). 

So please try this spread out if you need to connect with the energy of the Fool and feel free to post your results in the comments if you aren't too shy to share. If you get stuck, feel free to ask me for help because this is exactly what I am here to do! 

Also, as I was researching for this post (because I didn't want to steal anyone's spread accidentally and claim it as my own), I did come across this more in depth spread that can be used for any area of your life. It is on the Hermetic Rose website and it is called the New Beginnings Spread.