Before the Coffee, After the Fridge: How Challenges Built Me
Before the Coffee! The little challenges set me up for bigger success. Do your wall sits, push ups, squats before coffee and suddenly the day looks different. That same mindset carried me back into the classroom. Short on teachers. Heavy caseloads. Carrying a team. Was it too much. Yes. Did I put my whole heart in. Absolutely. To a fault. Year two of someone telling me to apply for a consulting teacher position knowing it was my goal. Year two of being put off. Meanwhile I was drowning in re-evaluations, extended school year paperwork, IEPs. Missing the fun times with my students. I had a group of 4th graders reading on a 1st or 2nd grade level. No growth. The common thread was language impairment. Day after day I threw myself into strategies, repetition, gross motor movement with vocabulary, research based instruction. Nothing. Then one started to grow. What changed. Not the curriculum. Not the delivery. Me. I stopped clinging to only what was “approved” and leaned into intuition. I w...