TeachGrowPeace

Welcome.  I can't believe that I am officially blogging.  I'm probably a little more excited about this than I should be.  Over the last several years it seems life every PD has talked about the importance of blogging.  I'm not sure why it finally clicked with me but it did, and I'm here now.  In my head I have grand visions for what I want this to evolve into, but I'm going to take it slow. 

Over the holiday break I've had the opportunity to do a lot of reading and catching up on things that I seem to let slide.  Two things really made an impact on me and brought me to starting this blog.   The first thing was watching the Ditch Summit led my Matt Miller (seriously he is one cool educator and you should follow him, read his books, and basically stalk him on social media).  I picked up so many exciting new ideas, but the biggest message I took away was about being happy.  Kim Strobel, another great you should totally stalk, talked about the Science of Happiness and it really hit home with me.  People who are operating in the positive brain are 31% more productive than someone operating in a negative, neutral, or stressed brain.  While I'm seriously a pretty happy person, I let the stress brain have residence in my head way to often.  Another interesting fact was that 50% of our happiness is determined by genetics, 40% from what we do ourselves, and 10% comes from the events going on in our life.  So if that is the case, I really need to focus on the 40% and make taking care of myself a priority.

The second thing that impacted me was choosing my word for 2018.  I've done this for a few years and it usually takes me awhile to come up with my one word.  This year I knew right away what word I wanted...AWAKEN.  I feel like I've become numb to so much around me and I need to awaken my excitement, my love for learning, my love for life, and just be present in every moment.  Don't get me wrong, I am passionate about kids, teaching, learning, and coffee, but somewhere along the line I've been focusing on the wrong parts and it has diminished the joy I had for them.  I want that back and somehow choosing that word made me realize it's still there, I just need to awaken it.  If you are on twitter, I highly recommend searching  #oneword2018.  It is really inspiring to see what words others are choosing.

So here I am excited, happy, and awakening to everything around me.  Keeping checking in and watch my growth.  2018 is going to be an amazing year!