My Challenge to Myself

It's been a while, I know. This summer has been...absolutely awesome. Sleeping late, reading, relaxing, sleeping, sleeping some more, shopping, bowling, playing Wii, acting nowhere near my age, actually refusing--yes, you heard me right!--refusing to clean my house, and, most importantly, just plain hanging out with people I really love.

But, now it's back to the big, looming reality that's soon to slap me and about 250 other employees of Union County School system in the face. School starts Friday. I'm numb this year. My last group of kids just graduated; in that, I mean the last group that I've been with since 6th grade just graduated. Gosh, I will reeeally miss them. But, I have ties with many of them outside of school, so I'm positive we'll keep in touch.

This is going to be a challenging year. There are so many obstacles facing teachers in our system this year, and I hate it, but I can't get into the logistics of any of these sticky situations here. Just know we need prayer, as teachers, as a faculty, and as a school community. For the sake of our own sanity and for the kids with whom we are charged.

Here's my pledge for the year--my challenge, if you will, to myself, to live and to remember every single day I stand up in front of the kids in this classroom:

...I've come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It's my personal approach that creates the climate. It's my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a child's life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a child humanized or de-humanized....--unknown