First down...hut hut

After surviving the first semester of grad school, I'd like to say something energizing and exciting, but all my knee jerk reaction is saying is AMEN.  We survived, and I could not have done it without my incredible support system and team.  Thank you all!

I know this "game" of grad school and teaching can be exhausting, because lets be real, my brain has been working out!  So many words and so much work, but through it all, I can still say, I am in it to win it.

I have learned so much throughout the semester and I am excited to take these experiences with me.  In my own classes I learned that I am capable of more than I imagined, and in my teachings I learned how to be ME.

I have learned to be myself in the classroom and be confident in my imperfect self - through this I have grown to be confident with my experience (or lack thereof); most importantly, I learned to be happier with myself!  I also learned, so what if I have a heart, and yes maybe I wear it on my sleeve; Palmer would agree with me, teaching with authenticity is the only true way to teach!

Lastly, I learned to speak up and bring real world problems into my classroom, because my classroom is an example of the just that!  Fassett and Warren (2007) stated “the world of the classroom is not a false world, but rather a microcosm of all the worlds we know, intersecting and interlocking in metonymic relationship to one another” (p. 62).

Yes, I made reference to football in this blog, but all puns aside, our classroom is not a game of life, it is life! (#ballislife. Sorry I had to, hah).  All seriousness, as teachers we are influencing lives in our classroom and my hope is that I can help students recognize their impacts on real world, then take the lessons learned and apply it into their daily lives.

Enjoy your time out and recharge time people, because we have work to do when we get back!

#heartwork