Rose, Thorn, Bud | 11.18.24

Hey family,

Forgive me for taking a little minute since my last posts. Of course, life has been bananas (I’m basically a full time soccer chauffeur now. That’s my life), but I’m still at it and wanted to share some reflections on my weeks as of late..

Roses

My biggest teaching win, by far, was my 1-on-1 portfolio conferences for the first quarter with my students. I have so much to share about it, and it’s a big feature of my Grading for Growth, Ease, and Alignment workshop. But it was just such a powerful opportunity to connect with my students and to speak positivity and life into their work. I’m a firm believer that, in addition to the science of language acquisition being for everybody, (most) students will believe you when you tell them how good they are. And when you can get them to find their strengths and intentionally reinforce them, the sky is the limit. My portfolio conferences were a huge hit and I will legit never turn back.

Thorns

Seems like a bit of a tangent, but I have just not been able to sleep lately. Several nights where I only get an hour or two of sleep and I just can’t settle down. I know that a lot of it is due to the state of the world and just feeling despair about the reality that is my country saying loudly and clearly that they want something that is fundamentally misaligned with what I believe in… and a lot of it is just the weight of being a new teacher at this job and not being able to let go of the desire to have everything be a home run, you know? Like, I know I’m mostly killing it. But despite how much I tell myself to let go and to allow myself to give whatever I have without overextending, I just can’t stop ruminating over those three kids that are acting like they are bored out of their minds and being in my class is rapidly draining them of any life force. I am literally losing sleep over trying to find a way to win those kids over. That’s not good and I gotta let it go. Step one: naming that I have a problem 🤷🏽‍♂️

Buds

Well, most immediately is 🗣️ACTFL IN PHILLY!!!

I’m super hype to be presenting alongside some absolutely incredible people and organizations, and to just see all of my camp friends and get some much needed hugs and good ideas. If you’re gonna be there, give me a shout! I’d love to connect, for real.