Inspired by the amazing Modern Mrs. Darcy (as well as my desire to be a true lifelong learner, making daily discoveries and testing their impact on my life), I thought I’d share a few things I’ve learned. These may or may not be teaching related, and they’ll definitely vary from very simple facts to things I may ponder for months to come. Everything will be something that made me smile or helped me thrive. I hope they do the same for you!

The National Anthem Is Broadcast Daily In Thailand

I was recently taking a workshop with someone in Thailand, and they paused briefly in the middle to apologize for the sound. As it turned out, they live right near the speakers where the national anthem is broadcast each day!

Daily Prayer & Meditation Works For Me!

I am infinitely happier, more grounded, and simply a better version of myself if I start the day with prayer and meditation. For a while now, I’ve been reading the daily Bible verses from YouVersion right when I wake up. I literally hit the button to turn off the alarm, take a few breaths, and click to the Bible verse of the day.

Lately, I’ve added a short prayer/meditation to start my day (nothing fancy – I just pray for as long as it takes the coffee to brew, and/or try to use a meditation from the Calm App). I also try to do a sun salutation or other very brief bit of yoga each day as well, which helps keep me feeling grounded and balanced.

Positive Walkthroughs In Schools

Credit: Dr. Marcus Jackson

Call me crazy, but I LOVE receiving feedback from administrators, fellow teachers, and coaches. It helps me continue to learn things I can immediately apply in my classroom. However, traditional walkthroughs give me serious anxiety, as I know there is a checklist that will track how well I’m doing in that exact moment. (And inevitably, that pressure makes me so nervous I miss forget to use great techniques that are typically part of my daily practices, never mind the new skills I know administrators are hoping I’ll be implementing!)

I recently read a great idea for positive walkthroughs from Dr. Marcus Jackson. He has a list of things he hopes to see (on a school-wide level) and makes a tally mark each time he sees it. There’s no constructive feedback in it, but I think if I were part of this type of walkthrough, it would inspire me to try increasing the number in that area, rather than creating the fear of making a mistake that often causes me to freeze.

When I return to full-time teaching, I’m planning to try this technique in my classroom. I’ll make a list of things we hope to be doing as a class (writing in full sentences, using vivid verbs, etc), and each time we see each other using that skill, we’ll add a tally mark. We can even try to beat our own records each day!

Water > Coffee

As a teacher/mom, I have kept myself going with coffee more often than I’d like to admit. Starting a daily practice of drinking lot of water and tracking my water intake in my planner have been complete game changers for me. If I drink 8 glasses of water in a day, I am way more awake than if I have an extra coffee (or 3… who do I think I’m kidding here?).

The key for me has been drinking a full glass of water right when I get up. I put a full glass on my nightstand before I go to bed, and I try to drink the whole thing before I consume anything else. It sets a really positive tone for the day!

Asking For Help Is A Strength, Not A Weakness

I made a HUGE mistake this week and overbooked myself completely. We’re in the middle of a move, I’m just starting to tutor online and am loving the classroom connection, and I’ve started coaching soccer. Rather than say no to the extra soccer sessions when a colleague asked me to cover, I accepted, knowing I’d be overwhelmed. This would have been fine… if I had simply let my husband know I’d be overwhelmed and asked for what I knew I needed.

Instead, I said yes to coaching (at a distance, no less), welcomed a family visit, and traded sleep for coffee. By day 5, I was an exhausted mess… certainly not bringing my best to my family or my work.

My lesson? Ask for help. It’s been a good thing every time I’ve done it. When chaos begins to ensue, things go better every time when I look at the choices I’ve made, scale back to something manageable, and ask for help where I need it. I have more fun, accomplish more, and learn so much from those around me.

I’d love to know… What have you learned this month?

I decided to be a Stay at Home Mom just before my son’s third birthday. My part-time job was consuming more than full time hours, and I felt less than present everywhere, all the time. I missed my son, I felt my family deserved more from me, and I hadn’t had a moment to think or breathe or exist as a person in months.

The one thing I knew (possibly the only thing!) was that I absolutely wanted to return to teaching when our family transitioned into school age years. I love teaching and will always have one foot in the field.

I did a brief stint at home before this. It was awesome… until winter came. And then, I had to return to work. After months of hibernating, I started to go a little stir crazy, and I knew my little one wasn’t getting the social experiences he needed and deserved. So, I headed back to work to give us both a little taste of sanity.

On my first day back at home, I told my husband my plan for saving our sanity. “We’ll survive winter!” I boldly declared. He paused, looked me straight in the eye, and said: You deserve more. You should not be surviving anything. You deserve to thrive. Let’s figure out how you will thrive.

And in less than 5 minutes (plus a few months!), this little corner of the internet was born.

Teaching is a lifestyle, as is being a stay at home parent. Both require planning, organization, commitment, and endless creativity and enthusiasm (at least the way we do it!). Frighteningly, my passion for both can steal my joy if I’m not careful to fuel my own tank, work with my systems, and remember that surviving is not thriving. When I’m surviving, so is my family and so are my students. It’s ok, but it’s not really fun. We live, we learn, we’re fine…

But when we’re thriving, we’re unstoppable. We create! We explore! We laugh, sing, dance, and discover everything God has provided, and we celebrate the joy in each moment. That’s not to say it’s perfect – just that we’re thriving and can easily take the setbacks in stride (sometimes with a little giggle over the craziness of it all).

I hope this is a place where you can be refreshed and rejuvenated. My goal is to provide resources that help us all thrive, as well as experience acceptance, love, and grace for the moments when we’re simply surviving.