Have I Told You Lately About Your Purpose?

Our school building is currently under restorative construction and so each morning when I arrive, I cross paths with various construction workers in the parking lot. We exchange morning pleasantries then enter the building at our respective entrances. Two occupations with differing purposes entering
the same building. A day of work ahead, both with the intention of creating, building on past successes, and making progress toward our goals. Assuming we each do our job well we will leave the same building at the end of the day having made a difference. We will have affected change and growth and made advances in our respective endeavors. The changes will be subtle, so much so that we will not even think about them, but if we hadn't shown up, the loss would be felt.

About twenty minutes after our arrival, the front doors open and about 600 middle school students enter the same building. They have yet another set of goals. Or do they? If you were to ask your students what their goal is when they enter the school building, what do you think they would say? I realize this answer will differ depending on the age of your students. As a middle school teacher, and the mother of a high school student, this question holds a lot of weight. 

Why does it matter? Let's think about it. Construction workers have their blueprints. They have very specific instructions to follow that will undoubtedly lead them closer and closer to achieving their final goal. Teachers follow lesson plans based on the scope and sequence of their curriculum to guide their instruction day after day, inform their classroom management and instill work habits to help their students grow. Though we may often feel as though we are constantly changing our direction to meet student needs, we really do have an end goal that we are aiming to achieve; work alongside parents to guide children in becoming decent human beings.

But what about our students' purpose? If our students don't know why they are showing up to school, if they don't have a purpose beyond compulsory education, can any of the rest of us entering that building really achieve our goals? Sure, the building will be restored, repaired, and improved. Certainly, lesson plans will be followed, curriculum spoken, and skills modeled. But how much does any of that matter if students don't know what it is they are trying to achieve beyond staying awake until the conclusion of the school day?

As is my way as I'm sharing my thoughts I often pause and go back to read what I have written, and wow those words seem dire. But there is hope and it is in your voice! Since you're here it's probably because you have kids in your life that are important to you. If you're a parent, you want what's best for your children, and you want them to grow into amazing adults. Have you told them that lately? Have you helped them chart the course to their future selves? If you're a teacher, you probably became a teacher because you thought that education was important, and you wanted to help affect the future of our world by teaching children. When is the last time you said as much to your students? 

Throughout this portion of this post I have been humming the song "Have I told you lately that I love you?" With the inundation of information and voices that our children have to endure, it is going to become more and more important for us to make sure our voices are heard by them loud and clear and often. They may be too young or too immature to understand the importance of school, but if we keep telling them that we believe it's important, that we believe their effort matters, and that we believe through hard work in school they can become an amazing human being, they will begin to believe it and find purpose in their school day. 

Enjoy reading what I write? Copies of my book, Connections Across the Student Desk, are available on Amazon: LINK HERE  or Barnes and Noble: LINK HERE

Wish I could come speak to your staff and colleagues? Give me the topic, I'll make it come alive! Contact me! maccaronicrew@outlook.com

Living in Constant Awe

The entertainment industry is littered with movies, books and vignettes of folks having a brush with death that wakes them up to the reality of life. But do we really need such a drastic event in order to live each day as though it is an amazing gift?

I have always been blessed with a penchant for finding awe. There's not much that is more mundane than a plain green leaf, yet as a kid I would look at a leaf through the car window and marvel at the fact that in the entire world, I was the only person seeing this leaf in this moment right now. Or I would look out toward the horizon and imagine all the happenings in the world right at this moment...someone is enduring the pain of lost life, someone is welcoming a new baby, someone is eating an apple, the war I saw on the news is actually happening, my dog is likely asleep, my pen is right where I left it on my nightstand, that list goes on and on. I've got a good one for you...at this moment right now as you read these words, someone else is reading the exact same post, maybe even the exact same word! They may live nearby or across the world. And maybe, just maybe, someone is thinking just like you and wondering what the point is of all this gibberish, or even more amazing, thinking OF you and knowing you would relate to these words just like you do. 

I could go on and on with my imaginings, and if I'm being honest, I still harbor these types of thoughts on a daily basis. After all, I’m the only one in this whole world, past or present, who saw the inside of the orange that I ate this morning. That's crazy! These are the awe-inspiring thoughts that run through my mind. A friend of mine once told me to stay out of my mind because it's a dangerous place.  Haha! So I don't question my awe...I just enjoy it. It brings me back to the present moment and I am reminded of the blessings that permeate my life:

My children and family...Their friends and the parents of their friends, who become my friends, first by association, then by shared experiences...The students I love, the parents who lend them to me...The co-workers who bring love and humor to ensure our students find success in school...Potato chips...Beautiful words...Running...So many amazing, wonderful pieces that make up my life! I am grateful for it all and I am blessed!

I want to always be filled with awe.  I want to live every moment of every day in a way that makes a difference in our world. I know I have the power to do this. I can change lives, beginning with my own, just by seeing beauty, and even excitement, when it's not immediately apparent. I can take this moment to create a smile, create hope, create connections, create love, or create nothing. What incredible power and responsibility! We are so lucky to have this life, and when we fill each moment with the proper sense of awe, we will become the force necessary to change the lives of others and live our own life to the fullest.

Enjoy reading what I write? Copies of my book, Connections Across the Student Desk, are available on Amazon: LINK HERE  or Barnes and Noble: LINK HERE

Wish I could come speak to your staff and colleagues? Give me the topic, I'll make it come alive! Contact me! maccaronicrew@outlook.com

Take Me to Your People: finding those who lift you up

Finding your tribe, the people who breathe life into you day after day, is not an easy task. No one teaches us how to find these people, but they are so very important to our well-being, to our happiness, to our very ability to say "Yes!" to the life we have built, even on the days it attempts to tear us down. At this point in my life, I have watched my five children work their way through the K-12 years. I have comforted them when friends moved away. I have wiped tears when "friends" were unkind and needed to shift into a different lane. I have attempted to be level-headed as, more often than I would have thought possible through my rose-colored glasses, we embarked on the conversation that begins with, "X is so mean!". Repeatedly I have asked myself, "When did this get so hard?"

I remember childhood days in my neighborhood. If the sun was out, so were the kids. We didn't have to look for the neighborhood kids who lifted us up. We all lifted each other. Sure, there were the few kids who when they turned the corner the rest of us would heave a sigh of...a sigh of what?...Maybe, "This isn't what I would have asked for, this changes things, but we can make it work."  And we did. We invited others in. We switched the game. We repeated the rules. We came out with snacks for everyone...even the kid who might be a little bit edgy or mean spirited. Most of the time we had fun. Sometimes kids had to be reminded to not be a "dweeb". haha!  But even that was done in a way that endeavored to include. We wanted to lift. We wanted to live. We wanted to just have fun.

Where did that go? Why did that go? And how do we navigate this new social landscape? As a mom and as a middle school teacher, I try to help the younger people in my life know their people and kindly dismiss those who threaten their well-being. But as adults it is just as imperative that we find others who will lift us up and share the higher ground. Hopefully we find that in the people who share our dwelling, but we also need it in the workplace. Have you found your people? Do you have someone or a few someones, to whom you can go when you need a smile, or a mental hug, or a mental shot of something strong enough to get you through the day? And how do you find them? For me, it is in the shared joys of the day. It is in the shared 'what the ...?' of the day. And it is in the shared understanding that we are in this together and we believe in the good of each other even on the days when life's circumstances bring out our worst. These are my people, and as we near the end of Spring Break, I find that I am not completely disappointed that my break from work is coming to an end because next week I get to reunite with my people and enjoy again all the joy, laughs and energy they bring to my life!

Enjoy reading what I write? Copies of my book, Connections Across the Student Desk, are available on Amazon: LINK HERE  or Barnes and Noble: LINK HERE

Wish I could come speak to your staff and colleagues? Give me the topic, I'll make it come alive! Contact me! maccaronicrew@outlook.com