Whimsical Wednesday: 6 of Pentacles

The Star - Renewed Inspiration

Now that we have looked at what causes feelings of burn out and what we can do to ease those feelings, we are moving on to the next part of our journey. The Star card is all about healing, renewal, hope, inspiration, and transformation. This is a truly beautiful and spiritual card.

Although I hate to use cliches, this card always reminds me of the rainbow after the storm. We have been through so much on our journeys as educators. We have experienced joys and sorrows, hopes and fears. The Tower card left us feeling shaken and maybe worn out, but the Star card is here to help us learn and grow for the better. This card is a beautiful reminder that we don't suffer in vain. There are valuable lessons to be learned from our suffering. The message is to take those lessons and apply them to our lives, both in and out of the classroom.

As I prepare to head back to work tomorrow, I am feeling a sense of hope, excitement, creativity and inspiration. However, this is not the same as how I felt at the beginning of my journey as represented by the Fool card. The Fool was before I knew better. But now I have real experience under my belt. I now know what works and what doesn't. I can make better decisions based on what has happened. I know what I need to do to take care of myself to avoid burn out, while still working to my highest capacity for the interests of my students.

I have been experiencing some other Tower moments lately, especially my son's recent diagnosis of Muscular Dystrophy. Sometimes there are things that happen to us and our loved ones that make us want to break down and we feel as though we can never truly be happy again. This is why the Star card is so important. It's a gentle reminder that we need to acknowledge our feelings and hurts as represented by the element of water and we need to heal those feelings and hurts. We need to find little ways to be happy even when we are facing huge obstacles. This is why I try to spend as much time out in nature as possible with my family and why I schedule reiki/massage treatments for myself every two months. The human experience is not always kind and pleasant, so it is up to us to treat ourselves with love and kindness.

I know this had veered off the topic of teaching, but the same does apply. Teaching is a tough job. We all know this. We will face difficult challenges again and again. But it is important to remember that we are doing the best that we can, that we learn and grow from each experience, and that we do our best to be gentle with ourselves as we continue on our path.

Here are some suggestions for how to create more Star energy in your life:

Spruce up your classroom desk: Plants, crystals, pictures of loved ones, meaningful knick knacks are always great ways to lift your mood if you are feeling stressed.

Take a time out. Try meditating for ten minutes during your prep period.

Make sure you are getting enough sleep, eating right, spending time with people you love, and making time for outside passions and hobbies.

Allow yourself to feel what you feel. Write it all down in a journal. Use your tarot/oracle cards for guidance and support.

Write down a list of your accomplishments. Sometimes we get so caught up worrying about where we are lacking, we don't spend enough time looking at all that we've done and celebrating those accomplishments.

I'm sure you've heard these tips again and again, but they are so important. I honestly can't repeat them enough. And I guess my biggest message with this card would be to do your best to nurture yourself, love yourself, and heal yourself. We all experience Tower moments, but we can't let our lives be ruled by them. We need to have more Star moments. We need to live each day trying to notice the beauty of our flawed, human existence.

All my best,

Amy

Oracle Card Reading for the Week of April 27, 2014

Please Support My Team as We Walk for a Cure for Muscular Dystrophy

I just wanted to make you all aware that my family will be participating in the Muscle Walk in Ipswich, MA on June 7th to help raise money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. My son is 3 years old and we recently found out that he has muscular dystrophy. Very soon he will be having a muscle biopsy to determine if he has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy or Becker Muscular Dystrophy. This is a very difficult time for our family, but we are determined to face it by being positive and proactive. This walk will not only help us raise money for a cause that affects us, but will also allow us the opportunity to meet and help other families who are affected by this life changing illness. If you feel called to do so, please click the badge on the side of this blog post and donate. My team is called Evan's Entourage and we are trying to raise $500. Your donation would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your love and support.

All my best,

Amy

Expect Miracles this Weekend

Hi everyone,

I apologize for the lack of videos this week, but I've been using the week off to spend quality time with my family and to recharge my energetic batteries to head back to work bigger and better than ever! It's funny to me the way the cards have worked out by looking at one a week since the start of January. It makes sense that the Tower card would show up during April vacation when many of us are feeling spent and needing a vacation or just some time away. Then starting up this week we will be looking at the Star card - the card of healing and renewal. I've been noticing some Star energy already just by observing all of the flowers that are finally popping up in my state of Massachusetts! So I am definitely looking forward to more Star energy! I think we all could use some!

So I decided to focus this post on another weekend draw, this time from the Gateway Oracle Cards by Denise Linn. I recently posted a video draw using these cards. I have been working with this oracle deck all week because I am currently doing a monthly deck challenge that was inspired by OwlMoon513's youtube channel. She recently did a video series explaining her deck challenge for getting to know your cards better and just yesterday she posted a video of extra tips for using your cards during the deck challenge. So I recommend checking out her videos and trying out the monthly deck challenge if you have multiple decks in your collection. You can do this deck challenge with tarot or oracle cards.

The card for this weekend is Expecting Miracles. I am getting two messages from this card. The first message is that if you have been going through a challenging time, your prayers are about to be answered. The pair of hands on the card are open and in the receiving position, so things that you have asked for will be making their way to you. That being said, it is important to keep your heart open. Miracles do not always show up in big, grandiose ways. Sometimes they come in small, simple packages. So you need to be open to receiving miracles in whatever form they show themselves. The second message that is that this is a perfect time to grow something in your own life. Looking at the pair of hands again, I see a flower and leaves flowing from the hands. This is a perfect time to let your creativity flow through you in some way - like gardening, writing, making art, cooking, or whatever your favorite form of creation is. Every time you create something, you are giving birth to your own little miracle. You brought something to life whether in your garden, on the page, or wherever that wasn't there before!  This message is made even more clear by the image of the sphere in the center. This sphere reminds me of an egg. so this card is all about fertility, maybe not in the literal sense, although of course it could be! But regardless, you can expect miracles this weekend - miracles that you receive and miracles you help create. Have a beautiful weekend, everyone. I hope you all go back to work on Monday feeling rejuvenated and ready to finish out the remaining school year.

All my best,

Amy

The Tower Spread for Teachers

What is contributing to my feeling burned out? 5 of Pentacles (Feeling Alone)
What is one thing I can do to help myself? The Emperor (Lead)

This was a very cool reading. As I was shuffling the cards, I was repeating the questions again and again in my mind. Each time I asked a question, the card for that question literally flew out of the deck. I love when that happens. It's like the cards are screaming, "Pick me! Pick me!"

As soon as I looked at the cards, I just nodded my head in agreement. They absolutely make so much sense for me.

When I look at the image on this card. The woman walking in darkness with nothing more than the moon and a small lantern to light her way is what stands out to me the most. This is exactly how I feel about teaching. I feel completely alone and that even after nine years, I still don't have a clue about what I am doing. The mountains, the dark forest, and the marshland make me think of all of the obstacles I face every day at work. I see the small cottage as a place of solace and peace, but don't know how to get there. As many of you know, teaching can be a very isolating experience. I meet with my team twice a week, but we all teach different subjects. I am lucky if I meet with my department once a month. I feel completely alone, searching for answers for how to reach my students. I feel very isolated from my students because I can't seem to break their walls or break their cycles of apathy and anger. When I feel isolated, I feel like a victim. When I feel like a victim left out in the cold, I feel burned out.

But the Emperor card is trying to encourage me. He is trying to empower me. When I feel like giving up, this is exactly the time to reclaim my kingdom - well, my classroom. I have to step up and take control of my situation. Students need a strong leader - someone they can trust and believe in. If I don't believe in myself, then why should they? I imagine the scroll in his hand as a blueprint for success, a map that he refers to when it's time to come up with a strategy for war. This doesn't mean I should view my students as my enemies, but sometimes it certainly feels that way. Therefore, I need to reclaim my power in the classroom and assert my will. Not through force, but by reinforcing my rules and procedures. I do plan on using the new social responsibility whole-school rubric when I return as  way to hold students more accountable for their behavior in class. I also need to find a way to inspire them and make them want to comply. I have to reconnect with the energy of the Emperor so that I can feel empowered rather than imprisoned.

If you feel called, please feel free to share what makes you feel burned out and how you handle those times. I hope you are enjoying April break!

All my best,

Amy

Whimsical Wednesday: The Lovers

The Tower - The Burn Out Card

Now most sources discuss the Tower as a sudden change that brings upheaval into one's life. I suppose that makes sense. Some examples would be a sudden break up, a sudden job loss, an unexpected and negative health diagnosis. This can be true of teaching as well - a student can become ill, hospitalized, and miss two months of school or a student can be pulled out of school expectantly by his or her parents for a variety of reasons. Those example are actually some things I have experienced this year.

However, I don't necessarily feel that the Tower needs to represent a sudden change. When I look at the imagery of the Tower, I think about all of the things that can test our foundations. Looking at the card closely, you see lightning striking and a fire spreading, but you also see a very sound structure standing upon a mountaintop. To me, this is so important. As teachers, we face many stressful situations. We can have stressful interactions with students, parents, colleagues, and administrators. We can feel stressed by lesson planning, grading, uploading artifacts into the new evaluation system, trying to comply with new demands and deadlines. The list could go on and on. But I feel that this card is trying to tell us that we need to view these things as tests to find out how strong we are. When this card shows up, we need to reevaluate our core beliefs and values when it comes to teaching and when it comes to our lives. Which of these things that cause us stress are out of our control or within our control? Which of these things have to do with our personalities and shadows and the way that we perceive certain situations?

I feel that the Tower can also represent feeling out of control and feeling like everything is falling apart. When that happens, it is really time to take a big step back. In fact, take a day off if you need to and use that day to assess your current situation. For me, this card represents burn out. Sometimes I feel so overwhelmed by my duties, by my responsibilities, by the weight of high stakes testing, by the awful situations that some of my students are facing, so on and so forth. When this occurs, it is a signal that I need to take some time out to meditate, relax, and get clear on what is really bothering me. Is it teaching or is it some other factor?

We all feel burned out from time to time. Here are some suggestions for what you can do when you feel burned out and think you may want to reconsider another school or another career field altogether:

• Get grounded and meditate. I can't stress this enough. Even if you hate the thought of sitting still for more than 1 minute, I highly recommend giving it a try. Doing this can really help bring clarity to a situation.
• Do something fun. I usually feel burned out when I feel like my work/life balance is out of control. This is especially true if I am feeling stressed out at work AND at home. So it's important to do something nice for yourself. 
• Write down your reasons for feeling burned out. Then go through your list and cross out the things you have no control over and put a check mark next to the things you do have some control over. Then write some possible things that you can do to change the things you do have control over so that you can be happier or less stressed.
• Spend time out in nature. I find hiking a trail or walking along the beach to be very relaxing.
• Exercise, get enough sleep, and eat healthy. You have to take care of your basic root chakra needs if you want to be successful in any other task in your life!
• Slow down. It's great that you want to do so much to be the best teacher you can be, but don't bite off more than you can chew. Take baby steps instead of trying to rush in and do everything all at once.
• Write a list of your core values and beliefs. Write down why you wanted to be a teacher in the first place.
• If you REALLY feel like you want to quit, write a pro and con list for the reasons why you should stay or leave the profession.

Don't get down on yourself if you are feeling burned out. It happens to the best of us. Remember, the Tower card is a reminder that our foundation, our true core center, is unshakeable. No matter what life throws at you, you are strong, capable, and able to overcome anything!

All my best,

Amy

Oracle Card Reading for the Week of April 20, 2014

The Weekend

Hi everyone,

I don't have a special post for this day like I do on most Fridays. I am going to be spending the day off with my boys. However, I decided to do a daily draw for all of us for the weekend using the Conscious Spirit Oracle Deck by Kim Dreyer and here it is....

It's "The Present" card. It says, "I fully experience every moment of my life by living in the present." What a powerful message! This is a beautiful reminder to stay present this weekend. Don't think about work, don't think about what happened last week, and don't worry about the future. Stay in the now. This will bring us the peace and contentment that we need. So enjoy your weekend and if you catch yourself stepping out of the moment, just close your eyes, do some deep breathing, and connect with your five senses. This will help reconnect you to the present moment.

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone.

All my best,

Amy

The Devil Spread for Teachers

What fears, habits, or negative thought patterns are preventing me from being the teacher I want to be? Trust (The Fool)
What do I need to do to overcome this problem? Awaiting Results (7 of Pentacles)


One of the major things that prevents me from being the teacher I want to be is my unwillingness to trust myself and to have faith in my abilities. I am not a risk taker and often stay in bad situations because I am so afraid of the unknown. But this is holding me back in many ways. I have been teaching for nine years and seven of those years have been spent teaching 8th grade. I have been offered the opportunity to teach 11th or 12th graders, but I fear being unsuccessful with upper class men because teaching middle school students is all I know. On top of that, I have also had other big ideas that I have wanted to try in my 8th grade classes, but I fear the repercussions of those potential actions. I would love to have crystals in my classroom and I would love to do 5 minute yoga/meditation activities with my students to either calm them or energize them depending on the situation. I don't know why I fear trying new things in my classroom, but I definitely need to get over it.

The 7 of Pentacles is a reminder that I should trust myself because I do have a clear vision for what I want for my students.The 7 of pentacles represents my ability to see the bigger picture and the fact that I have been planting seeds for many years that I need to allow to bloom. Over the years I have developed a curriculum map, essential questions, objectives, and authentic assessments to have my classes run effectively and efficiently. I use backwards design when planning my units and every year I take professional development courses to keep my teaching fresh. I have to start giving myself credit for the hard work that I have put in these past nine years and understand that results can take a long time to show up. The 7 of Pentacles is a metaphor of all the work I have been doing up to this point. I have planted the seeds, watered them, and nurtured them and now I just need to wait patiently for the results to blossom. But in the meantime, I need to start taking some risks and trying some new things along the way.

I hope you find this spread helpful.

All my best,

Amy

Whimsical Wednesday: 5 of Cups/ Captain Hook

The Devil - When the Classroom Becomes a Prison

We have now reached the Devil card on our journey. This card is the complete opposite of Temperance. While Temperance is all about balance, harmony and patience, the Devil is all about oppression, addiction, obsessions, and fears. I feel this card is a great representation of the dark side of teaching. If we don't face our shadows, it can and will lead to burn out.

It is usually around this time of the year that I begin questioning whether or not I should stay in teaching. If I am perfectly honest, even after nine years I still don't feel I am cut out for this. It was my childhood dream to become a teacher because I loved being a student. But things look and feel a lot different behind the other side of the desk. When I went to college and did my student teaching, I felt somewhere deep inside that this job was not for me. But I loved reading and writing, so I hoped that would be enough. After all, with student loans looming over me and not wanting to face parental disappointment since they had also shelled out a lot of money to help me go to school, what other option did I have than to stick with the course I had mapped out for myself?

Although I have learned to make peace with my decision to stick with teaching, it hasn't been an easy one. It is one that I continue to question again and again, year after year. But as I approach my tenth year of teaching, I am starting to realize that my problem isn't with teaching. My problem is the emotional crap that this job stirs up for me.

The Devil card represents a situation in which a person feels stuck or imprisoned. Teaching brings up a lot of feelings of oppression and bondage for me. My core desire feeling is freedom. I am a true free spirit who doesn't like to feel tied down to anyone or anything. I have only discovered this recently about myself through shadow work and working with Danielle LaPorte's brilliant workbook called The Desire Map. Being a teacher makes me feel the opposite of free. Let's face it - there's hours of grading and planning, there's boring after school meetings, there's following up with emails from parents and students - it's a lot of freaking work! And I am not a lazy person by any means. On the contrary, I am quite ambitious, hard working and competitive. But at my core being, I want to feel free.

I also feel oppressed when I feel my time and energy are being disrespected. It really angers me when students talk while I am talking or when I catch them texting, sleeping, or trying to do another teacher's homework in my class. I hate when they roll their eyes, suck their teeth, and swear under their breath about what a bitch I am. I hate when I put a lot of time into my instruction, provide models, go over rubrics - only to find that my students have not paid attention, not taken notes, left my rubric on the floor and then turn in a low quality piece of work and are absolutely indignant when they receive a low score. I hate when parents email me to complain about their child's grades and imply that I am either too unreasonable, too difficult, or too incompetent and that their little cherub deserves an A just for turning in something, even if it is a piece of garbage that was scribbled five minutes before it was due!

But if I am going to survive this profession and stay with it until retirement, then I have to face my shadows. It it imperative that I stop taking things personally, that I stop obsessing over every infraction, that I get over feeling like a failure. I need to apply what I learn through yoga and meditation to become a more Zen teacher.

The Devil card is a reminder that we are not truly trapped by anyone or anything other than our own perceptions about a situation. The fact that the naked figures in the card are not truly chained and are free to go at any time suggests that we too can be free, but only if we are willing to face our fears and our shadows.

What bad habits, negative thought patterns, or fears are holding you back from being the teacher you want to be? This week's spread will help us identify these issues and look for ways to overcome them.

All my best,

Amy

Weekly Tarot Reading for the Week of April 14th

Tarot by Numbers: The 7's

Whimsical Wednesday: The Star/The Blue Fairy

Temperance Spread for Teachers

What will help me create more life/work balance in my life: Love Abounds (Ace of Cups)

This card comes up a lot for me in personal draws and it makes sense given my circumstances at this time.  I am currently going through a stressful time both professionally and personally. The stress is taking a major toll on my body and I have an upcoming doctor's appointment to address these issues. The Ace of Cups reminds me that I need to get in touch with what I LOVE. I need to really look within my heart and and focus on what I really love - my family, spending time outdoors in nature, writing, creating art, yoga, meditation, kickboxing - and make sure that I am making as much time for those things as possible. The Ace of Cups is also a reminder to balance my heart chakra. I need to let love in. I need to practice forgiveness - of myself and of others. I need to let go of anger and resentment. Love is the ultimate thing I need to focus on in order to achieve a healthy work/life balance. Love is what I need to live a healthy life period.

What do you need to do to achieve a better work/life balance in your life?

All my best,

Amy

What Tarot Can Teach You About Yourself

I know I normally only post about Tarot as it relates to teaching, but tonight I feel really compelled to write about my personal relationship with the cards.

Tonight I picked up my Housewives Tarot deck (which I haven't picked up in quite a few months) and randomly started shuffling. I didn't even have a question in mind. I just felt drawn to pick up that deck and it felt great in my hands. As I continued shuffling, five of the cards fell down on the floor. I picked them up and started really looking at them and I realized that they were all reflections of my Self.

I believe in synchronicity. So when cards fall out like that, I know they are meant for me to really contemplate. Usually only one or two cards fall out like that for me, so I knew this was an important message for five to have fallen.

I have been feeling really stuck lately. There have been a lot of things that haven't felt right lately and I have been questioning who I am and what I really want out of life. I have been feeling fragmented and pretty down on myself. But when I looked at those five cards, I felt they were the beautiful pieces that make up exactly who I am.

The High Priestess - I am spiritual, intuitive, and deeply in touch with my inner wisdom. It is this inner knowing that alerts me when I am out of alignment with my true nature. The beauty of feeling raw negative emotions is that it is my inner self reaching out to me and letting me know what isn't working so that I can find a new path and realign myself with what truly makes me happy.

The 9 of Wands - I am a highly ambitious, motivated woman. I am creative and not afraid of hard work to achieve my goals.

The 4 of Wands - But I am also a woman who likes to relax and enjoy the simple things. Sometimes I don't want to be running on all cylinders. Sometimes I want to just kick back, relax, and just be.

I had been feeling very conflicted lately because I desire to do so much - write a successful blog, edit my novel, write a new novel, so on and so forth. But I also desire to just hang out in bed and read or just spend the day playing with my children or just snuggle with my husband. But the 9 of Wands and the 4 of Wands tell me not to feel conflicted at all. They are both pieces of me. They balance each other out.

The Page of Wands - When I look at the image of the boy with his mischievous grin riding on his wooden toy horse, I see my inner child and my divine spark. I am imaginative and playful. These are the things that make me a fun mom and a true artist. This card reminds me that my soul is timeless, that I am full of creative ideas, and that I should always allow myself time to play.

The Page of Cups - As a Page, I may not be as mature as a Queen or a King, but that's OK! The image of the child watering his plants reminds me that even though I may not always have the best control over my emotions, I am still a very loving and nurturing person. I may not always feel like a good mom or a good teacher, but my desire to nurture my kids and my students is what gives me the strength to keep on going even when everything feels so difficult.

Pages also represent students and I have been and will always be a lifelong learner above all else.

I challenge you to pick up your deck today and either see what falls out or select a few cards. What do they reveal about you?

All my best,

Amy

Temperance - Work/Life Balance

At this point in your journey, whether a first year teacher or a seasoned veteran, you may be feeling out of sync in terms of your work/life balance. This happens to all of us from time to time. But Temperance reminds us that everything must be done in moderation and that in order to create harmony in our lives, we must find a way to balance our professional lives and our personal lives appropriately.

I am just as guilty as anyone for letting work take over my life. Teaching is a very time consuming and energy zapping job. But when I let my work life take over and let my personal life suffer, this often leads to feelings of anger and resentment. This obviously keeps me from experiencing what we are all meant to feel - love and happiness. On top of that, it can also lead to health problems. Speaking for myself, I have suffered from digestive problems and chest pain when I don't have a handle on my work stress and focus all of my time and energy on work. When I look at the road leading to a golden crown in this card, it reminds me that in order to be healthy and experience joy, I need to find a proper balance in my life. If not, it will only lead to burn out (which we will discuss when we get to the Tower card).

The two cups with water flowing between them represent mixing two opposing forces to make something new or to heal us in some way. For teaching, I see this as mixing knowledge with fun. In order to create a harmonious classroom, we must find a way to balance content knowledge with fun. If there is no fun, the vibe in the classroom will be angry and hostile. If there is only fun, the vibe will be one of chaos and havoc. There needs to be a true balance of both to find success.

I really enjoy the symbolism of the Temperance card from my Housewives Tarot deck. It shows a standing mixer and ingredients such as joy, sorrow, anger, and justice. This reminds us that we must take the good with the bad and that life is a combination of positive and negative emotions. If we never felt anger or sorrow, we would never be motivated to make positive changes and better choices.

So I hope you think about what you need to do to balance your work/life situation as well as to assess how things are going in your classroom. This week's spread will focus on what we need to do to create more balance in our lives. I hope you find ways to infuse some fun into your professional and personal lives this week.

All my best,

Amy

Weekly Tarot Reading for the Week of April 7, 2014

Tarot by Numbers: The 6's

The Death Card Spread for Teachers

What needs to die in order for my teaching to improve: 2 of Wands (Spread Your Wings)
How will be teaching improve as a result of this death: The Magician (Manifest)

I love how the Magician keeps showing up in my readings, especially since becoming the Magician in my classroom is one of my key goals. Now at first glance, it may be challenging to see how something that looks so positive (the 2 of wands) needs to die in order for my teaching to improve.

The two of wands is all about long term planning. It's about taking an idea and trying to devise a plan to make a dream a reality. Long term planning is something that all teachers do. We create curriculum maps for the entire school year and then we create units for our terms. So what could possibly be the harm in being a planner? The problem for me personally is that I always seem to have one foot in the current school year and one foot in the next school year. So while I am teaching and trying to focus on the students I have at the present moment, during my team meetings, department meetings, and individual meetings with my department head, I am always working on the next year's goals. The danger in this is that usually by this time of year, between being burned out by my current students and feeling overwhelmed by what's not working, I tend to just start immersing myself fully in planning for the upcoming year. So pretty much I feel like spreading my wings and flying away from my current students so that I can start focusing on my future students. In my imagination, those students will be more focused, more organized, less apathetic, and less rude. Of course, eventually reality will replace the fantasy and I will be right back where I started. I take full responsibility for this problematic cycle. The part of the cycle that isn't my fault is that I am always being asked by administrators to create and pilot new programs. I think I need to start saying no to some of these projects so I can spend more time in the present with the students I currently have and focus on solving the current problems instead of hoping to solve them with my next set of students.

If I can do this, I will be a true Magician. True magic is about taking what isn't working and fixing the problems in real time instead of simply wishing them away. It's all fine and dandy to reflect on things that have gone wrong and trying to plan and change things for the future, but the real magic of a teacher comes from facing current problems head on. So I really need to stop spending so much time in future planning and start spending more time looking at what isn't working currently and making changes right away. If I want to manifest a successful classroom, I need to start experimenting in the present and stop strategically planning for the future. Today is all we have, tomorrow is not promised.

Amazingly enough, this reading also applies to my novel writing career, but that's a completely separate post. I would be really interested to know what needs to die in your career or in your life in order for you to live the life you want to be living. So please feel free to share if you feel called to. Thanks!

All my best,

Amy

Whimsical Wednesday: 8 of Rods