Congrats!

Life can get crazy.  

As a student there is always a balancing act with assignments, midterms and large projects.  I enjoyed reading Jay Gee's Blog last week and the article she chose to write about in her blog ("Message to New Teachers for a New Year: Patience, Persistence and Peace" by Lisa Michelle Dabbs) was very insightful to me.  Her rendition of the article and how it applies to our lives at this very moment reminded me of talks from my EDFT 435 class about being present in the moment. 

 There are so many distractions in the life whether you are a student or a teacher.  Those distractions may differ for each individual but the fact is that they exist.  As a student,  I try to overcome these distractions by creating a balance in life and creating time for those things that I consider of "top priority."  However, even in those designated times I find myself distracted and not "really" present.  It is a fair assessment that our future students will face some of these same distractions and difficulties in creating an adequate balance in their own lives. 

As a future teacher, I plan to voice these comments made by the author to my students and congratulate them on how far they have come in their academic career at the beginning of the year.  Most students, including myself, tend to focus on the negative feedback given by teachers instead of what they did right.  No wonder students have a "fear of failure" if this ability to pause and reflect on past accomplishments does not seemingly exist in schools.  I am very guilty of just getting through obstacles (to the best of my ability) with "patience" and "persistence" but rarely feel the "peace" mentioned in the article.  The article mentions we have to work to find this "peace" and I can relate to that as I sift through the distractions of life to find it. 

I think a way to find this peace is to be present in the moment.  We, as teachers, have to think about our accomplishments and congratulate ourselves on them, not just find another project to complete.  So I ask my fellow bloggers:  what are some of your accomplishments for which I can congratulate you?  Some individuals have completed their internship, which was a daunting task, while some have completed a significant portion of university.  Congratulations!  As the article states "give yourself a hug and feel a great sense of accomplishment." (Dabbs, 2012)