Power through with...reflecting

There are few things more frustrating than working hard and not seeing a ton of results. It's even worse when your hard work is unappreciated, and you're criticized for not doing enough or for doing things wrong. When you're trying your absolute best to teach well in a pandemic, the reality is that your best might not always be good enough . Sometimes what you're able to give really isn't sufficient. Of course you feel inadequate, when you know what you're capable of under optimal circumstances, and also know you're not working with anything even close to optimal circumstances. So the only options are to try to single handedly compensate for all the adverse circumstances and perform at a superhuman level every day, or adjust our expectations. You know which choice I'm going to advocate for. I want you to let go of the "shoulds" and regrets about this school year. I want you to celebrate the small wins, instead of focusing on all the things that aren't happening. I'm going to talk more on that next week. For now, I want you to focus more on who you are becoming, instead of what you are able to do (or not do) for your students. Ask yourself, Who do I want to be on the other side of...