November 28, 2022

After Thanksgiving and a week off, I was ready to kickstart the last few weeks of the semester before we leave for Christmas break. Even with the anticipation of Christmas holiday, this can be a challenging few weeks to stay positive. We are tired, stressed, and doing everything we can to help our students pass the semester.

So my challenge this week (and however many you have left this semester) is to find something to get excited about. In my sophomore classes we began today by reading poetry written by a former student and making connections to our class novel. I was excited to read the poems, but I was not prepared for the amazing thoughts my students were already beginning to develop regarding text-to-text connections. And it’s only the first day!

Find something that will get you excited, and put your heart into it. It can be a small mini-lesson, a new decoration, a read aloud that you love, or any number of things. But that small win, that small positive excitement, will help you smile through to the end of the year.

Let me know what you are excited about in the comments! I’d love to hear about it.

Happy teaching.