Put Your Ideas Out There

So I have a confession to make-I feel like I am a complete failure as a teacher at some point every single day. This year has been particularly difficult for me. When my students do something they know better than to do in front of an administrator. When a lesson just completely bombs. When I assess my students and they are not where they should be. When I feel like I am not keeping my students safe from the other students. When we are in a meeting and just hear about all the things we are doing wrong. And I'm an experienced teacher, I can just imagine how new teachers feel.

I say all this because even though I feel that way most days, I also feel like I have ideas that I can share. I started at a new campus last year after working at the same school for 13 years. It is strange to see how priorities are emphasized differently. I came from a campus where higher level thinking skills were the norm, were expected. At my new campus it's more an emphasis on social-emotional skills. So we have an incredible culture at our campus-but I'm not sure the students are being challenged they way they could be. There are a lot of TPT packets and cute cut-and-paste activities.

I was asked by my administrators to present ideas on how to incorporate higher level skills to the various grade levels. It was nerve-racking for me because I didn't know if the teachers would be open to the ideas. But they were. And I had such a great moment this week-I walked past a Pre-K teachers wall and it was covered with activities for critical thinking like the ones I presented. She told me that she was using them in class and could see improvement in her students' thinking. I have a colleague in Kinder that said the same thing. I gave them a tutorial on Depth and Complexity in the beginning of the year and she is using those activities daily with her kids.

All that is to say that I think EVERYONE has something to offer, ideas to share. Whether it's presenting or blogging or even sharing on Twitter--get your ideas out there. You never know who you will inspire. :)