God Knows...

God Knows...

After posing last night, I went back to reading one of the books I'm on now, “Shattering the Perfect Teach Myth,” by Aaron Hogan who is an assistant principal in Texas, and a Twitter-Teacher that I follow. His book has been suggested by several people in Twitter-verse.

Anyway, last night's post was kind of a downer and I was doubting my efficiency as a teacher on many levels. Then I come to chapter nine in the book, entitled, “When We're Not Enough.” Friends!! This was just what I needed and God knew I needed that chapter then and now! Let me share with you a few of the quotes from Aaron's book, chapter nine:

• “We have to remember that our efforts have their limits and that our students ( and their parents) are the ones who must take final ownership over their decisions....” .”...we cannot make the choice for the students (or their parents.” Powerful stuff!!
• “I would go so far as to say I felt called to this profession, even designed to do this. And in many cases, I felt like I did this well.” Preach!
• “...I felt a little hopeless and started questioning myself.” Me. Last night.
• “Educators should feel okay to be worn out by their job. They should be okay with recognizing that at times, we have to pull back to recharge. And they should know that their work is tough and they don't have to be Superman and act like it's not weighing on them.” Thank you, Aaron, for this!
• “As an educator, our work is absolutely going to push us to our limits. We discover those limits by giving every last bit of ourselves to the students (and families, I might add) that we serve.”

Aaron goes on to give some tips of what we can do. He says we should:

• Set a goal of relentlessly pursuing and pushing students toward success.
• Believe that all you have to offer is enough.

He goes on to say, “Every kid deserves to be known and served well at school.”

Aaron quotes psychologist, Brene' Brown as saying, “When we make the transition from crazy-busy to rest, we have to find out what comforts us, what really refuels us, and do that.” For me, it's reading. Escaping into a good book. And I thank God that's what it is, especially last night, when I needed these words the most.

Aaron also says, “...we are not enough on our own to be everything that every student (or their family) needs. We have to be okay with that.” “We cannot give our all to everything. There's just not enough of us to go around.” He gives some ideas to combat that:

• Identify your pitfalls
• Define your priorities
• Gut check regularly (preferably with someone you trust who will be honest with you)

He says, “The work you are doing and your relationships with others are too important to pretend that you can simply press on without limits.” He goes on to say we need to, “...identify what really got us into education, and find ways to do that valuable work we know to be so important for students and teachers.”

“...take care of yourself.”

“...your job is the hardest job I know of.”

Thank you, God, for giving me this chapter when I needed it most. Thank you, Aaron, for writing this book! God bless you!