Don't Insult My Teach-Elegance

Caution Do NOT even turn to the next page if you are a devout English teacher. The grammar and structure of this guide are an expression of my 1st amendment right to freedom of speech, even as a teacher. You will encounter slang and text talk for the purposes of letting loose and keeping sticks from getting into places that cause us to think higher of ourselves over others, if you know what I mean. Since no formal observation is being conducted, I'm going to say what the heck is on my mind.

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Introduction I know, I know, there's not a wrong question you can ask, questions help you find out the information you need, blah blah blah!!! Whoever made that statement clearly did not factor in the profession of teaching and what a teacher should not be able to ask once they sign on the dotted line!! Sorry to tell you, if you are teaching, that "ain't" the right question. Yeah, I said it!!! Hey, this is a let it all hang out type professional development synopsis/diagnosis/guide/ I don't care what you call it, no need to get all grammar happy! As a matter of fact, if you plan on whipping out the red pen go ahead and hand me my F because I'm about to freestyle this teaching thing!

Who am I to be writing a book in attempts to give you highly qualified, national board certified, teacher of the year 11 years running, finished top of the education program, education specialists, any advice about teaching? No one I guess, because I don't hold any of those titles, working on the nationally certified thing though, and I'm not considered a vet yet, but my qualifications don't come by way of this expensive education I'm still having to pay back, it comes by way of being 100%, without a shadow of doubt; minus all the continuous whining, frustrations, curriculum changes, lesson fails, irate parents, increased doctors visits, increased work absences.......ok you get it, where was I? Oh yeah, it comes by way of being 100%, without a shadow of doubt sure that YOU, yeah YOU, got into this profession because somewhere deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep don't go too deep, you'll lose it, but you knew that you wanted to make your mark in this world by changing the lives of the people, big and small, by instilling lifelong, world surviving lessons, into them each and everyday until a path of neurons fire up and other body parts follow suit and they all start working and moving together toward the individual's own series of 5 W questions..,Who am I, Why am I here, Where is it going to get me, When will I get there, and What the heck are you talking about?!! Was that a run-on? Soooo whaaatt!!! Let's keep it moving!!

Look, in short summary, which is impossible for any teacher whether you are new to the game or not, teaching is not a thing, it's not a job, career path, chore, ok there are definitely chores involved, but it's waaayyy more, it's a calling like no other, on your life to be this huge imprint on the future of this world!

Oh my that sounded like an overwhelming flood of responsibility didn't it? Well it is! Suck it up, you are the chosen one!!! That's why you don't get to ask that question! You're either in or out, sick and tired or not!!!

Hey, I've been through the burnout phase and it still flares up a sting every now and then with the ever changing changes changing every single objective writing day!!!

So, enough of the talk you say, get to the help! I hear you from the very tip of my thoughts! I've been where you are right now, face in the book desperately seeking new school year help and assurance that everything will be alllrriiigghtt. Well it won't!!! I'm just playing which is not what I need to do with such a touchy subject...

Alrighty then, I'm going to share with you some very valuable teacher coping strategies to lighten the mood of daily, nightly, 190+contracted days of connecting with your students, maintaining your sanity, and never asking yourself that question again because you know that you know that you knew and now truly know where and why your heart is in teaching.

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First Things First; Keep It R.E.A.L Real what? There are 3 parts to this R.E.A.L deal.

First, this is an acronym in my world that stands for Realizing everythang, not thing, ain't" lovely.....

No, no, no, no, no, no, everything is NOT lovely, but guess what??!!! You can make it as lovely as you like.

Pray about it first, most definitely, pray and pray again then pray for your colleagues and then just dive into it. Never ever ever forget how you felt having successfully completed that 1st year of teaching; the collaborative bonds you made, the things that you learned that moved you over into the semi-pro title, and that very first class picture of you, forgetting it was picture day with a group of kids that wouldn't miss a day of school because of you.

On to the 2nd key thing in the word "real." Your students deserve everything "real" that you have to give; real talk, real respect, real experiences, real learning, and real dedication. They have no idea what goes on when you are at professional developments, when the district makes changes that worry you, when new legislation passes that affects their future. They see your frustration, you see your love for teaching slipping away, and the real you starts getting a real headache and whether you know it or not you start becoming one too!

One thing I started doing that made my students feel like they were included in every part of my day and my learning in order to teach them is I started sharing with them things I learned at conferences, professional developments. I show them the books I got, I shared what I learned and why it excited me, what worried me, what our school issues are etc...and if I have meeting throughout the day I let them know so and my "hired teaching assistant" relays the message of my whereabouts to anyone looking for me and to his or her peers. He or she also has a copy of our schedule and is a responsible student that I "keep it real with."

3rd but by far the most important, the REAL-ationship that you build with not just your students, but with everyone connected to your students down to their grandma's grandma grandma that you learned about from a family collage activity. I found it soooooo hard to understand that kids could have bad days too and not just because they know how to be bad, but because they had real life, grown up worries happening before they even reached the bus stop. Then on top of my tardiness, coffee spilled on my shirt, forgot my ID badge, and left the activity on the counter morning, I have to come in to a student who's had it worse but I'm blinded by my coffee stain so we are both in a mood that changes the entire atmosphere for the day. I am still learning this part of the approach to REAL, but I strive to be more sensitive and aware so that I can be ahead of the collision and take the necessary precautions to be able to sit aside my problems and scream when they leave to go to lunch, but I'm giving off positive vibes for how the day will go. Now this is the only time that you can be real fake about being real real because you will have to force a smile just don't let your response be too fake and definitely make the connection during the time of turmoil a good one. When you do this, watch how REAL easy it will get when another bad day comes around.

Pheeeeeewwwww that was REAL Long!!!

Right now, don't you dare say tell me something I don't know because the sad thing is we do know and we don't do. We do know and we don't try. We do know and yet we are still asking ourselves that same ridiculous question year after years of teaching.

You know what I'm not condemning the burnt out teachers, gosh darn it I become one around April and I've asked myself the question many, many, many, many times but yet come August I've got more supplies than the stores, I've changed my room around 3 times already, and the thought of doing something better, something new, and a new set of minds to touch starts gettin' my flames a little higher and I start to feel as good as new. It's a cycle! It's the teacher's life cycle. Starts with the stage of excitement, then moves into learning mode, goes into adapting, then frustration, survival mode, and then hibernation mode. Then it starts allllllll over again!!! Remember you are the chosen one!!

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Sensitive Teaching Skin Moisturizer Alright let's continue with this journey. Now this is where it gets a little touchy.

You will only go as far as your best lesson if that was your absolute best. I have observed, attended, and been blown away by some of the "best" professionals in this teaching game I could ever know. I use to feel intimidated by those teachers getting sooo much attention for doing things I know I had been doing for years and I'm like whaaaaaaattttt, my students went to Mars and met an alien that they brought back and enrolled in our class, taught it English and everythang!! Only a teacher illuminating by his or her own light will delight in the accolades of recognition and will need continuous glorification in order to be at their best. I use to be that way because the recognition of the importance of teaching only came by way of high test scores, personal bonds with higher ups, and self-service. Self-service is limited collaboration out of fear of losing recognition. I had to hear over and over and over again that it's not about YOU! I don't care how well done your lesson is, if your students are vegans, you've wasted some good steak! It's allllllll about the students at the beginning and end of your day. If you do what another teacher does, SO WHAT OMG,!!! We need all the help we can get in teaching and reaching students and there's still time to be worried about " they're copying me!" in my whiny voice. Listen, I say this, having faith that it holds a high percentage of truth, but we are all great at what we do in the sight of millions or in just the sight of our students. They deserve nothing but our best and even that should be improving on a day to day. If you have given your absolute best you, best lessons ever no improvement needed, then my friend, congratulations you are ready to retire!! I've had some wonderful lessons but they seem to change each and every year with different students, more resources, more advanced technology, and more growth in me. You have to be willing to take it all in!! Sometimes I feel like my head is going to pop off with all of the new stuff we get introduced to or that's being implemented, but at the end of the day and I mean the very end, don't try to fit that new thang in just like that, you gotta work it in there. Now after that moment of testing, you see what worked or didn't and now you've expanded your knowledge of something new. Even if it didn't work, I bet you found something in it that could be used or you found a creative way to change it altogether, that's what we do!!!! That's why you stop asking yourself that question because you make it fit; you make learning fit, you make it functional, and you don't get burned out! You get some everlasting flames under your gluteus maximus. That's what we say in my house and my class instead of butt, bottom, or booty. "Glutes should be glued to the chair." Please know your students before you say this because someone Wiiiiilllll try you!!

To sum up this part let me encourage you; your best is truly yet to come if you bank on striving to be the best at what you do. This can only happen if you accept that you haven't arrived yet but continue making improvements to the road along the way, even if that's the best route.

My husband would always map out 2 ways to get somewhere and see which is the fastest route; I'm thinking what about construction, accidents, what if it starts raining, you know, things like that. Well, the only way to get to where you are going, factoring in unexpected events, is to simply KNOW where you are going and be willing to do what you need to do to get there. Prayerfully that doesn't include road rage or emergency rooms. You just may improve your best route by coming up with a better time to hit the road.

How are you feeling right now? I hope hopeful, maybe even motivated. I also hope you're not still looking at a little flame and a lot of ash.

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Intrinsic Payday Ok, got your best “boos” ready? Face the fact that you don’t get paid like Dr. SixFigureSally. I knowwwww she was in your class. I knooooow you taught her how to read, write, and did everything you could to encourage her dream of becoming a doctor. Guess where your payoff comes in? No, not on your check stub, stop looking at it!!!! No, it’s not in your bank account either, stop calling the automated line to check your balance! I tell you what, get up right now and go to a mirror.....it’s ok you didn’t brush your hair, teeth, or wash your face just make sure it’s only you in there. Take a good look at yourself in the mirror. Now force a smile and repeat after me. “My worth is in my passion. My passion is in my teaching. My teaching is in our future.” Yeeesss, it is in a future of children you have helped mold into the people that will run this country and take our places. Some may run the country over or even run to another country and that’s ok! You know how we want our students to see the bigger picture, always? We’ve “gotta” be looking at the big picture with them and believing in it with them, in spite of, the $500 deductions from our paychecks. It’s something we have to hang on to, keep voicing the need for change, but not allowing it to change the passion inside of us.

If we do then we, too, along with the system, fail our kids. Now that was a pull your shoulders back, stand tall type outlook. Ok you can go back to slouching, on to the next sticky subject.

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Shut It Down Before You Get Down The first order of business before you step into the 2nd day of school is to have communicated expected behavior and discipline to both parents and students. Don’t make school rules your first rules. Make home rules your first rules and then add school to the mix. Ask parents what they expect their students to do at school, how they expect them to behave, and what are things as far as respect and behavior that they DO NOT allow at home. Next, ask students the same thing but don’t let them know their parents have done this. After you have their responses and their parents' responses, communicate your findings with them.

Let them know that since their parents expect these things, they will respect them and follow the same home guidelines in school as well. The overall goal here is for you to communicate with parents that school is the time you have invested to spend with their children, the time that you want them to be experiencing learning in a positive way, and YOU make it clear that YOU, the teacher, did not certify to become a babysitter, that your time is not spent on keeping kids, it’s spent on teaching kids. Take that run-on and run-on! Get connected with them and allow them to see that you have a family and children just like they do. If you don’t have children still connect with them because you do have a family and the expectations of school really doesn’t change through any generation, it’s the place where kids are to go to learn. Even if it’s homeschooling, there’s an expectation of learning that’s suppose to be taking place. Don’t wait on this part until mid year, it will bite you haaaarrrrrddd!!!!!

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Get Over IT!

I don't make this statement to make you feel any type of way. I make this statement because it is going to be what it's going to be and the best thing you can do as an educator is either get on board or jump ship. There's no easy way to tell you that not everything you do that you feel should be recognized will be, but that doesn't mean you should stop doing what you do. Let me give you the greatest advice I can give you, not just from my teacher view, but from my faith view; you getting over it, is how you choose to respond to it. Did you catch that? Whatever it is, whatever is being asked of you, whatever you disagree with that turns out to be just the way it will be, if you would choose to respond in a way that doesn't drain you of your energy and focus, I guarantee the getting over it will start to come so easy to you. The moment the response becomes how you can keep it moving forward as opposed to how it's going to slow you down; you won't just be getting over it, you will have made it through it. Your response, if appropriately released and respectfully expressed, will not put you in any position that compromises your values or principles. Believe that!

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You Are Not Alone Did you know there are a "bigillion" yes, that means big past the millions, of other teachers that feel the same way you do right now? However, there's special bond that teachers everywhere share that no amount of policy kryptonite could ever weaken. If I share it here, then our mission could be compromised. Just know that once you accept the challenge of educator, the power is within you and the bond is internally embedded. Do not think that you are alone with the hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly challenges that teachers face. If you are unable to reach out to others within your building, reach further out. There are a "bigillion" social media groups that often share and share alike the toils and rewards of being in the position we are in. After joining a 4th grade group on Facebook, I found out that I was not alone! Especially when it comes to people like me on this earth. The craziness that I thought was only happening at my school, with our students, amongst our staff; IT HAPPENS EVERYWHERE! You just do not know how enlightened and relieved I was to see and hear this. It was a sign that you and I are not going crazy. Now didn't that just loosen the crazy knot in your stomach!

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Home Away From Home Where is this place, you ask. Well, let's think about this for a moment..... You are there most of your day, you eat the majority of your meals there, oh and there are some tiny people there that at one time or another have called you mom.Yep, you guessed it. Your school, your classroom, is your home away from home. Hold your head back up! You know why this is a good thing and you should make it a great thing?

Well, it's because some of those tiny people running around accidentally calling you mom; you are the closest thing to safety and home they have. Why yes, I did have to pull that out to shine in your face.

Listen, though the days grow long--er and the hours get longer--er, and your patience gets thinn-er, er, er, you must always remember that your purpose is bigger than your position. Did you catch that? Hey, there is no way that you have stayed in the game because things get easier each school year. If you are saying that, stop right now and shame on you! Your organization and execution of the tasks may be getting easier, but the new students, new parents, new policies, new curriculum, new grade levels... I could keep going; those things bring you to new challenges each year and that's because your purpose is bigger than your position. You are a valuable jewel to some child who yes, needs the school to eat, your classroom to sleep, and your purpose to push them higher than their circumstances. Welcome Home!

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Restoration Now why would I put restoration in the center of this vent? Restoration is the "act of restoring or the condition of being restored, bringing back to a former position or condition." The key to your sanity in this profession is your ability to restore YOU; to bring YOU back to the beginning of the school year condition.

Now if you started off at the beginning of the year already tired and wore out, I need you to put this book DOWN and go google "sample teacher resignation letters." I am so serious right now! You cannot be in this profession walking in on the 1st day of school like some tired teacher knowing 20+, some more, some less, students are depending on you to make them realize they can be away from their parents for 6 hours and love it.

Your restoration time is not just that you take a rest or a day off. It is where you go and what you do in the time that you have carved out as restoration time. Let's be clear about what exactly you need to be focused on when you go off to restore yourself. A teacher's restoration processing and completion time are not like that of any other profession. Don't ask me why either! If you are a teacher, then you already know that " THESE IS FACTS!" Oh now, don't you forget we are not grammar checking in this thang, unscrunch your eyebrows and stop all that gasping!!!

Anyway, on a more personal note for restoration and this is just what I do, it is imperative that I spend alone time with God and continually seek His guidance for this purpose that He blessed me with. Notice I said alone. Let me paint this picture for you; my husband and children are gone, I have my phone, only for emergencies only, no checking social media or emails. I may have my Bible app up or I'm searching for reference scriptures. I am still in my bed clothes. While I am cooking myself something to eat, I am playing my "favs gospel playlist" and it's my time to just be at peace and be thankful. After I have spent that much needed time praying, worshiping, and meditating on clearing my mind, then I go into reflection mode and goal mode. What can "I" do better everyday in my classroom? How can "I" make a difference in their lives each day? What's something "I" need to stop doing that can really affect them negatively whether I see it or not? How can "I" motivate my colleagues to push past all that we deal with on a dayto-day, not just pushing to get by, but pushing for greater change? Those are minimal reflection questions. The point of this part is that YOU must have a place of peace that involves you breaking away, not so much that you start detaching from a purpose you truly have, but just enough to bounce back to that former condition. Every moment of our lives needs to have a period of restoration and reflection; our bodies after birth, Yes Lord, marriage, "childrenships", friendships, jobs, health, you name it. They always started with a condition description of new, never used, great condition, used once or twice, depending on if you really want to share that with your spouse, right? Well, some things are always more valuable as they grow and get old with time, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't go through restoration to get that condition description back. Pick one of those things mentioned above and think about what it would feel like, be like, look like restored right now. I don't know about you, but I see a pretty fine, athletic woman with a body like whoa! Great, now I need some more restoration time!

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Organization This part of the book is not about you joining anything at the moment. It is about you getting organized with your thoughts, your paperwork, your classroom, and everything else in your teaching career that has the tendency to become a mass episode of chaos and mentally knock your socks off! If you start off the school year organized then you, my friend, have just LEVELED UP! So what does that look like? It looks like you have file folders ready to copy last year's information for your students, it looks like you have a routine system in place for EVERYTHING and you are ready to walk your students through it repeatedly for the whole first month of school. You know what else leveled you up? You've got a nice, big student binder already in place on your desk that starts with parent contact information for each student. Oh, oh, let's not forget, you've got the 1st MONTH of lesson plans done. Don't you dare give me that "girl you crazy look!" We are singing that song right now. I'll start it off, "we're all in this together, once we know that we are, we're all stars, and we see that." Ok let's stop. I did that just to motivate you because that song is right up there with "Let it go."

Alright, I know that we are all capable of being organized grown ups, but truth be told, we don't consistently practice being organized and when we don't, our students don't. Just do a trial run of being absolutely on top of your game organized and observe how much more organized your students will try to be. You are not just modeling ways to learn through instruction, you are modeling behaviors that will make students become academically successful and guess what, organization is very important to that success for them. How about you just play that song for them, so they know you guys have 190 days of togetherness ahead of you.

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Motivation On a scale of 1-10, what is your level of motivation for what you do? What does it take to motivate you? Is it hard to motivate you? These are all important questions you really need to ask yourself because the same responses that you give willl probably be equivalent to how your students feel in your classroom. You didn't see that coming did you? Well, guess what it is 100% true. If you are not motivated enough to pump yourself up each day, assuring yourself that what you have to bring to your students is going to blow their minds, then you will just simply blow it and nothing else. Believe me, I know it's not an easy task to go into the classroom all holly jolly every single day, but if you begin to practice doing so, even on the days when it is not so jolly, you will be surprised at how your students can scoop up some jolly for you. We have to be motivated, even when the new curriculum says that you must teach a certain skill 7 days a week, yes 7, somehow delivering the skill for mastery over the weekend as well. The moment you find what motivates you to get up each and every morning to go deliver your award winning lessons and those that don't even make it past your thoughts, you will have found the diamond in the rough of your teaching career. You are the head motivator of your classroom and your job is ultimately to create a classroom full of motivators so that motivation slaps people in the face when they come into your room. If the thought of some people getting slapped (no, not directly or by any hands) doesn't make you do a Grinch smile, then you my friend have got to be sitting right next to God! I smiled and really big!

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Flexibility I have never been flexible. I may have been when I was younger, but I am not really sure because I think if I had been, I would have wanted to keep such a gift. Well, the flexibility that I am going to elaborate on in this section of the book doesn't require any epsom salt soaks or icy hot unless you allow it to bend you all the way out of shape. The flexibility I am speaking of is the ability to adapt and adjust as needed to everything that surrounds your classroom, your students, your district requirements, your school-wide relationships, everything, like I said. You will make your teaching career one long and meaningless traveled road if you do not seek to develop and utilize flexibility. In your full week of school, only 60% of what you expect to go right and as planned will do so successfully. The other 40% includes unexpected challenges with students, colleagues, parents, administration, and your classroom technology that you had planned to use during your observation. I see you jumping up and down in a fit of rage yelling "I want my 100!" Stop It ! Slap, Slap! You are at an advantage with the 60%, so how can you shift that 40?

By taking on those challenges and responding to them as if they are part of your 60. If you can do this, watch your 60 increase weekly and before you know it, you will be "flexin" all up and down the halls, on duty, in your classroom, everywhere.

Little Johnny comes in on observation day mad, cranky, you are over it because you just want things to go smoothly and he's letting you know that he is about to shut your show down. Be flexible in your response to him and watch him show you a Johnny you thought you'd never see. First, get to the source of his anger. Next, rechannel it by using him to assist you, in other words, get his mind off of it. Lastly, check on him often, revisit with him before the day ends, and hug him for the turnaround. Look who just got a 20% bonus! You betta #werk! Guess what, it's ok if he comes back and you lose 5%! Release and repeat. As hard as it is sometimes to take a deep breath before exploding, we HAVE to do it. We HAVE to model to students that short fuses are not accpetable and that in everyday life we have to exercise control. I'm glad you asked, yes, this same flexibility has be part of your personal life and modeled with your own family.

Be the model, be flexible.

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Teaching Under Construction (Lifetime Building Contract) Please do not think that your period of construction ends when you are released from the 3 year noob (newbie) status or even after year 5. Your teaching style, your teaching methods, your teaching period better be in a constant state of construction and reconstruction if you plan on making a career out of this career. From the classroom that you put together to the unit that you created successfully, I hope you are prepared to revamp them each and every single year with the new generation of learners you get. You may even be throwing something out; remodeling, reconstructing, or flat out calling the demolition crew.

Whatever the plans for renewal and restoration, always go at it with an open mind, not thinking about yourself, but thinking about your students. Your students' learning styles, attitudes, looks, and abilities will change and challenge you like Arkansas weather, but remember your superpower, flexibility???? Whip it out and start reconstruction. We are under a lifetime building contract if you haven't yet realized that. We have committed to a lifetime of building up learning, building up learners, and building up this profession so that we are attracting a new generation of educators. If we are not in a constant state of building, we are going to have a lot of boarded up ideas, dilapidated teaching foundations, and lots and lots of vacant minds. Let that sink in.

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Movin' On Up Sing it....."Well we're movin' on up, movin on up, to the east side, to a deluxe apartment in the sky hi hi, we're movin' on up, movin' on up, to the east side, we finally got a piece of the pie hi hi hi hi hi."

Are you ready to move on up or are you happy right where you are? A little complacent are you? Now this doesn't mean that you are trying to go into administration or stepping out of the classroom to explore other educational opportunities, although I would hope that more is always in your vocabulary. This moving simply means that you are looking back at your foundation and construction site and that you are "up-ing", if it's not a word, it is now, your game in the classroom with your teaching, as a colleague, district employee, just as a teacher period.

It looks like you are involved with everything that's involved with you as a teacher. It looks like you can be called on to assist. It looks like even when you can't, it's not because you wouldn't. Do you know what growth looks like? It's an upward motion and that upward motion is always considered to be higher, taller, more visible, stronger, and that should be your overall goal in this thang....always moving on up. You should be challenging your colleagues to be moving with you and your students to be right behind you. You should be challenging your administration to keep up with you and your district to notice you. Just know you won't go anywhere if it's a selfish move and everything you do will go unnoticed if this is your motive.

Why? Simple, in this profession, your moving up will be the outcome of watching those you have impacted move up as well. The growth of others IS your growth. Hope that makes sense. If not, you need to move!

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Professional Development Don't look at this page too long because guess what? This is your professional development! This vent, this book, is a tool that you can use to cry with because you now realize you're not going crazy! Everything you've been trying to explain to your spouse about your day has been real all this time. Tell him/or her to stop looking at you crazy now, you have proof! Ok, you want some PD advice? Go, learn, apply, repeat, (not the same ones unless you need a refresher), plus you have to repeat because it's required. Stop picking PDs that mean absolutely nothing to you and don't say that's all the mandatory ones. Aside from those, you should always get PDs that will help you grow and do all those superpower things in the previous pages. Alrighty then, done with that. We're almost wrapping this thang up.

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If You Know Better; Do Better

OOOOOO You Know Better!!!!

You've heard that saying "if you know better, do better", right? Look at you all up in my punctuation and where it should go. How did you forget the type of book this was already! That's what's wrong with us now, scared to let it go and be free, always gotta be right! Anyway, this is a great lesson to teach our students and ourselves, yeah?

If you know that you should be doing better than what you are doing, then do it. If you know there's something that needs to be done, then do it. If you know there's something that needs tweaking, tweak it.

If you know there's something that needs implementing, implement it. If you know there's something that needs to be said, say it, with a filter if necessary. If you need help with something, then get it. Look, there is no way that you can be trying to teach kids about life lessons if you ain't takin' your own advice.

Remember what I said about modeling? If you show students that there is no fear in knowing what to do and doing it better and right, you will have shown them a whole lit up alley (area in their life) that they were once afraid to go down. I know I am not telling you nothing new. I know I'm not sharing some things you don't already know. I just have one question for you though.......if you know better, are you doing better?

Thank you for not insulting my teach elegance! I appreciate you appreciating my teaching etiquette.To teach or not to teach, you don't have to answer that, I know you are ready to go!

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My Faith is My Everything The very thing I have at the end of this book is the very thing that holds this book all together from beginning to end, my faith and my family. I am very blessed to be able to teach at a school, a public school, in fact, that doesn't try to set limits to my faith and my expression of my Christianity. To be able to pray with colleagues and to be able to share in the gospel of Jesus Christ has been the joy of being blessed to teach. I respect all of my families, students, and colleagues regardless of their own beliefs, and whether they believe as I do or don't. I love them as Christ loves me and I try really hard to show what love and kindness genuinely looks and feels like. So the moment I am asked why I smile when there's hardly anything to smile about or how I keep going, I can gladly share that I am a Christian. I can gladly share that I believe in having faith which the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1) and I believe that for my life in Christ. I also believe that the plans that God has for me are to prosper me and not harm me and I take that with me even when the trials come because He let me know they would, but to not be troubled by them.

I just say to anyone fortunate enough to have a position and unlimited opportunities to pour into the lives of the future of this world, to make sure you hold on to something higher than yourself because this is a profession that will always be bigger than you are.

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My Family is My Other Everything Wife of 15 years, mother of 3; 18- started college summer 2019, 14-starting high school August 2019, and 11-starting middle school August 2019. I'm the oldest of 3 children, my brother and I are 7 years apart, my sister and I are 10 years apart. On my mom's side, I was the 1st, so I'm the oldest grandchild and the oldest of all the nieces. I have 1 niece and 2 nephews of my own. My mom and dad are still living and I'm still the favorite. None of my grandparents or great-grandparents are living anymore, but I was a very blessed child to have known and been raised by all of them. Many of our family members on both my mom and dad's sides still reside in Carlisle, Arkansas. If there is one thing I know about anything that has helped me become the most nurturing teacher I know how to be, it's the importance of feeling loved and feeling like you are part of a family. The students in my room become an extension of my own children, and for 178 days, I care for them like they are my own. That's why my teach elegance can't be insulted because I choose to teach.

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Where Will You Grow From Here?

If you don't do anything else with this book, take a moment to reflect on what you can start doing for the sake of becoming a better you for your students.

What do you want to do better because you know better? How can you become more flexible? What do you need to do to build REAL-ationships in your classroom? I know one thing for sure. Just writing this short book caused me to do a lot of reflecting and reconnecting. I always prepare myself for the new school year by reflecting on where I left off. I may not know a lot about a lot, but I know a little about enough. The more we come to know and hear from each other, the bigger we become in support numbers.

I dedicate this book not only to God for planting this passion deep inside of me, but to my family for standing with me and fighting for me to get here.

I have also been very fortunate and blessed with many administrators who have been more like mentors and colleagues who have been as close to me as siblings.

I thank all of the parents of any students that have been in my room because they trusted my with their babies and that can be a hard thing to do at times.

I love what I do and I do what I love. I pray that if you have this passion, but can't seem to get the flame reignited, that you start at the restoration place and you go from there. We teach our students to believe what we say is true, so we owe it to them to be true to what we believe.

Elegantly Free to Make Mistakes Mrs. LaRisha Nelson

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Don't Insult My Teach-Elegance Copyright Š 2019 by Larisha Nelson Mrs. Larisha Nelson M.Ed Curriculum and Instruction B.S. Ed P-4 4th Grade Teacher Acknowledgment Cover Design by Larisha Nelson Photographs and Picture Designs by Larisha Nelson All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including storage and retrieval systems without permission in writing from Larisha Nelson Although the author and publisher have made every effort to ensure that the information in this book was correct at press time, the author and publisher do not assume and hereby disclaim any liability to any party for any loss, damage, or disruption caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions result from negligence, accident, or any other cause. (advice, how-to) Powered By Bookemon. www.bookemon.com