It's true...we are practically related. This is how I know....
We BOTH worked hard, or hardly worked & earned ourselves a whoppin' 1.7 GPA our sophomore year of college. Yep that's right...we both almost didn't make it to diploma time.
Freaking crazy to think about it. His story is a tad different than mine. You can catch it here. It's quite inspirational.
It's absolutely crazy to think that one human can make such an impact on the life of another human. For him it was the lady in the beauty shop who couldn't keep quiet. Thank goodness for that. For me it has been a team of humans who forced me to either have a "come to Jesus" moment or sprinkled some glitter in my life.
Let's travel back to 2nd grade where Mrs. Posey wouldn't let us leave on Friday without a big red lipstick kiss on the cheek. Then in middle school it was, Ms. Prescott who somehow thought my ability to read numbers was next level & bumped me up to the advanced math class & just told me I was ready & I could do it (I think I ended up getting demoted in that situation but it was worth a shot) & in high school, Mrs. Harper who busted me on plagiarism on an English 4 writing assignment on Wurthering Heights & instead of just flunking me on the spot, she called me in to see why I thought I needed to plagiarize & walked me through the writing process for probably the 5th time.
Now there is college. It took me a second to figure out that you actually need to attend classes to get good grades & that statistics is not a good choice at 8 am. Probably any class at 8am is not a good choice. Side note: when I did show up I was in sweat pants & a baseball hat. The day I showed up looking like I cared the professor didn't recognize me & asked who I was.. lol... I attended a small private college where the class sizes were around 30ish students) Then there were the professors who somehow crossed my path in this desperate time of need. Spencer Hurst, who goes by Spencer was one of them along with Dr. Paganos. Both of those humans made a huge impact on me graduating college & becoming a teacher. Let's be honest for a sec....the butt chewing from my dad when he received my report card in the mail might have had some kind of effect too. I made him quite proud during this era of my life.
Flash forward to the present
Teaching is a freaking roller coaster ride. It has high moments & low moments. Sometimes it can feel like an eternity to get to the top of the hill just to go screaming down real fast. I have yet to find a teacher who has not second guessed themselves during the ride & even questioned if this is the right profession for them. Me included. I almost quit...like job searched & interviewed type of quit. Click here for more on that.
It's also weird how you can't listen to a message until you are ready & how messages can circle back to you when you are ready to actually listen & not just hear. For more on that click this. (I still sightly feel guilty for being such a punk back in 2012, sorry Dave for the eye roll) If it wouldn't have been for another life saving human, Dr. Saale who encouraged me to join Twitter last year, my teaching life might have just fizzled out. Through her encouragement & accepting me as me, a giant snow ball has been formed. I have an amazing PLN with humans who I have met & claimed as my "glitter gang" & I have co-workers who I can call my "glitta sistas" with out them I don't know where I would be. Actually, I do know where I'd be...I'd me miserable & making everyone around me miserable
So what I'm getting at with all of this is that teaching is hard AF & really getting to the part where the state allows you to teach is obviously hard too. Maybe harder for some than others. It should be noted that I did pass all of the state licensure tests with pretty high scores...just so you don't think I'm a Jay-Walker ( Jay Leno for those of you who didn't grow up watching him) or something...except for the English one ( I'm not an english major or minor) I missed that one by one point. I'm still a little pissy about that one.
Ok...back the point.
This week is Teacher Appreciation Week & just take a sec to think of everyone who has picked you up when you fell & brushed you off & said, "get back in the game...it's where you belong...you can take those punches...you were built for this." Then think of the humans you are doing this for today...full circle...yeppers.
I want to give a mega shout out to Tara Martin for really forcing me to to reflect on the educational seasons of my life with this interview. I was gitty & honored when she asked me to join her on Dave Burgess Consulting FaceBook LIVE.
I think I'm still a little high from that experience. Also, thank you to Dave Burgess for retweeting my 3rd-ish ever tweet a year ago this month. Because of that re-tweet my pirate obsession began. It's the little things that sometimes get me...I know..silly & lastly...to my glitta sistas that I have had a privilege of claiming this school year, thank you for not telling me to simmer down with my ambition.
I hope that you don't relate to me & Denzel when it comes to GPA but a lot of my students do & I think that when I tell this story it is one of the few times they stop what they are doing to listen to me. It's like we all become one at that moment in time. But, I hope you do relate to the impact another human can really make on the life of another.
Go out & be proud of you & what you are doing...cuz if you're doing you are changing the game for a lot of others. Most importantly, SHARE what you are doing. If it wasn't for Denzel sharing about his 1.7 GPA I would have never known that I could relate to him & that his story would be a good teaching prompt for my story in which my students could relate to.
XO,
Lisa M.Ed (just thought I'd put that credential too bc I graduated with a 4.0 on that one & we are talking education)
IG: lisa_toebben (I've picked up running & am documenting it here #runLAP )
Twitter: teach_n_boots (mainly educational stuff)
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