Welcome! I have created this blog to chart my journey to becoming a more "awakened" teacher. After reading Angela Watson's amazing book Awakened: Change Your Mindset to Transform Your Teaching, I have been inspired to change the way I am thinking about my work. I came to teaching with youthful enthusiasm and a true passion for the job, and over the past 10 years have watched myself losing both my enthusiasm and passion to become one of those cynical and jaded teachers that I vowed never to be when I started out. I have little glimmers of my former self, perhaps while making animal masks with my class or watching them play 4-Square as a class at recess time, but feel myself struggling to maintain those feelings under the weight of standardized testing, government versus teacher struggles, administration versus teacher struggles, parent versus teacher struggles, an overwhelming curriculum and the feeling that I can just never do enough to make this system work for my kids.
So I turned to this book, and along with my summer book club, found a path out of this internal struggle. Now, on Tuesday, I begin a new school year and will attempt to forge ahead with a new mindset, according to Watson's book. So what are my goals?
- to enjoy my job again (not just for a moment, but for a whole day or week or month!)
- to stop taking everything personally
- to take on only what I can handle, and avoid feeling guilty for not being able to "do it all"
- to avoid the "gossip trap" and focus on having positive interactions and thoughts about my colleagues, my class and myself!
Rachel
Please check out Angela Watson's amazing website for information about this book, and her other book The Cornerstone. There is a ton of great stuff on this site! Thanks Angela!
www.thecornerstoneforteachers.com
