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