Today I received my award for being the Teacher of the Year at Jackson...cool award and a HUGE honor...the overall award went to a kindergarten teacher...THAT is a person with A LOT of patience!!! (For those of you outside of SB...the South Bend Comm. School Corp has 34 schools...each school has a teacher of the year and then a committee picks 1 person to represent our School Corp at the state level...I was one of the Building Teachers of the Year...cool stuff!)
I was reflecting through the ceremony and on my way home...I thought back through all of my teachers that I have had that have sooooo shaped my life...teachers that sometimes I catch myself talking like them...or wondering how they would handle a situation or a student...sometimes I even want to go back and apologize to a few of them!! On my ride home I just had names running through my head...from K-12th grade...and as I'm sitting here I think of my college profs and then Mr. Beam and Mr. Dillon my supervising teachers...people that have invested so much in me...sooo grateful.
Thankful to for my students...because I love seeing them have breakthrough in their lives...love seeing them attempt more than they ever thought that they could...
And I'm thankful that I have NEVER had a bad principal...I mean it!! My principals have been AMAZING people and leaders...they make my life easy and pour belief in me!! Some teachers have horror stories of the people they work for...I don't have 1 bad story of a poor administrator!!
I was just reading a comment on Kelsey's FB page...that behind every man is an amazing women...and that is SOOOO true in my case! Kelsey is an UNBELIEVABLE teammate! She has shaped my life and my teaching in sooooo many ways! She shares ideas and doesn't let me settle...she expects me to do my best and helps me make that happen!! It also helps that she has been a music teacher...she's a GREAT resource too!!
For fear on continuing to go on and on...I'm going to go on and on!! One of the things that changed a lot of my teaching was having children...and more than that...have school aged children. Each of my kids are different...and seeing how they come home and perceive what their teachers are saying to the class...has made me be more careful in how I communicate...Also...I have changed some of my practice time homework!! Kids do need to be kids, so I cut my orchestra practice time after Chloe went to school! Kids do need time to play!!
Lots of reflection tonight...very grateful to have been so blessed to have so many amazing people invest in my life as I get the opportunity to invest in others!!
