Win the Day

“I cried today at a team meeting.”

“I cried on a Zoom meeting with a parent.’

I’ve heard these things more than once as schools have started to open.  Teachers and administrators are overwhelmed with keeping themselves and their students safe, dealing with the unknown and trying to find answers for every question.  It’s exhausting and can make a day that had some tears make us feel like we have failed. But failure isn’t what happens to you, it’s what happens in you.

Try these to take control of what you can control and win your day:

Visualize your best self in the best scenario.  Take 10 minutes each day and imagine your best self to your colleagues, your students, your family, your community.  What would you be doing? What would you be saying?  What would happen as a result?  Seeing yourself acting (and reacting) in your most ideal way will help when things get rocky.  You can draw on that image and embrace the strength of the person you know you can be.

Create a Power List of tasks for the day.  These aren’t routine tasks like answering email or taking attendance but rather 2-3 things that when you accomplish them will help you become that “best self” you spent some time visualizing.  These might be the things that you know you should do but that somehow fall off the list (calling parents, visiting classrooms) or something new that you need to become a habit to get to your best self (10 pages of professional reading a day).  Whatever it is – these things will eventually become habit and make room for the next few things that will get you closer to your goal.

Connect with someone. You aren’t in this alone but it takes courage to reach out and ask a question from a colleague.  Or to share a challenge.  Dedicating time to finding at least one person you can reach out to will not only help you find answers and perspectives to what lies ahead but allow you to build relationships that will sustain you when times get tough. It always helps to meet a challenge with a friend at your side.

I want to personally invite you to join us inside the PLP Community Hub where educators across the globe are able to come together in a safe walled garden of support. Side by side we can all win our day.

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Theresa Gray

Theresa is a Community Leader and Leadership Coach For Powerful Learning Practice who counts education as her second and true career. After practicing as an attorney for a short time, she knew she could make a bigger impact teaching and started her career co-teaching middle level Social Studies. She then moved on to facilitate professional learning regionally and earned her M. Ed. In Educational Leadership and has her permanent certification in School District Leadership in NYS. Most recently she has served as an Assistant Superintendent for a small city school district where she supported the implementation of 1:1 technology, developed and implemented school improvement plans and created professional learning communities in several areas including curriculum, student support and parent/family engagement. She is passionate about supporting leaders in all positions and in engaging students in authentic learning.

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