When a Girl Needs Inspiration

Pinterest began for me as a way to pin photos and ideas from blogs I follow. Having the cute little pin at the top of my screen downloaded, waiting there for me to grab and tack plans and recipes and design ideas...wow, that blew my mind. Up until then I had been bookmarking pages! Now Pinterest is quite daily, a quick glance sometimes, but at other times, a study of ideas, recipes and designs. Searching the boards of friends and acquaintances (and strangers) has helped me hone the style I'm always attempting to perfect or at least confirm. Pinterest has become a wonderful source of inspiration for me in my life.

A source of inspiration for me professionally is observing and talking to other teachers. Yesterday Moss Elementary teachers visited Cottonwood School, near Coalgate...an elementary school that is doing very well (to say the least) with the new grading system (good test scores). When schools receive this good rating, other schools notice and want to see what they're doing. Because I teach third grade, I observed two wonderful third grade teachers, Mrs. Adams and Mrs. Mixon. I took note of the discipline plan. I admired some curriculum. I couldn't help but notice the good behavior of the students. I observed the classroom layout. The teachers were doing what I do, in some ways different, in others, the same. Yet being there at Cottonwood, watching them do what they do (what I do), made me inspired to continue doing what I do, to investigate ways to do it differently, to raise my own bar and walk bravely into this Common Core world, to keep on keeping on toward the goal of educating children.

The inspiring hallway in the elementary building at Cottonwood. Christmas lights. Magical and quiet and calm and spectacular at the same time.

Thank you, Cottonwood, for the teamwork and dedication I observed. And thanks for the feelings I came away with. The feeling that there are so many good teachers out there, working hard every day, changing the lives of the children of the world. And the feeling I'm glad I'm one of them.