The World Spread for Teachers

What should I be celebrating right now? 8 of Cups
What is my biggest accomplishment when it comes to teaching? 2 of Wands

What I should be celebrating right now is my ability to walk away and move on from stressful situations that can not be dealt with reasonably. Last week I had to deal with a highly charged situation regarding a student's behavior. That situation quickly escalated to the point where the student was threatening physical violence and an administrator had to intervene. Even though I am disappointed with the behavior of that student, I am proud that as an adult I have the ability to reason and not just make decisions based on emotions. Like the figure in the card, I have the ability to lead through example and not through lecturing. I have since let the situation drop and am continuing on from where we left off. I am not holding grudges or treating the student any differently. I am hoping that she will learn from my example on how to let go of things that don't serve her highest good.

I could have held on to that situation and let it ruin the remaining few weeks of the term, but instead I am choosing to celebrate that the situation was handled quickly and to my proper satisfaction. I can celebrate my positive traits: patience, rationality, clarity, and objectivity. Those are traits you really need to have if you are working with middle school students. If you are a highly emotionally charged person who takes everything personally, it will make for possible explosive situations.

My biggest accomplishment when it comes to teaching is my ability to plan long term. I use backwards design for planning my units and I find this incredibly helpful. I know what my goals and objectives are for my students and I am able to design lessons that will help them reach those goals and standards. This card also ties into my 8 of cups because I am celebrating that after next year I will be leaving 8th grade behind and moving on to teaching juniors and possibly AP. So I am already starting to begin my planning and preparation for the 2015-2016 school year. I need to start planning now to some extent because jumping up to teaching 11th grade after 7 years of teaching 8th grade will be a huge leap. I am used to teaching the basics. After next year, I will be teaching students to think more critically and more creatively. So I have a lot to celebrate and look forward to as the end of the school year approaches.

What are you celebrating?

All my best,

Amy

P.S. I have a new video series in the making and I am EXTREMELY excited about it!