Week 3

I have finished the third week of a brand new school year. There have been some growing pains, but I will talk about those another day. I want to talk about one of our back-to-school in-service meetings. Our principals shared about the book "Soup" by Jon Gordon. At one point, they would describe a characteristic of a good teacher, and ask our groups of four to name one of our colleagues who most represents that quality.

One characteristic that was mentioned was "visionary". We were asked to name a colleague who is always evolving and learning new things, striving to get better. My name was submitted by a couple of teachers. This is the kind of teacher that I want to be and that I try to be, but I haven't felt particularly visionary so far. This year is off to a rough and chaotic start.

In all fairness, I have had a lot of life happen outside of the classroom. Our family has grown by one. Su is an easy baby as babies go but she is still a baby.Jun is a good girl but is very adventurous so I cannot ignore her ever. Chao lei is my helper. He is eager to help but I must remember that he is my son not my co-parent. Being a parent of three (particularly the two littles) is exhausting. Some days are all about survival.

I've been thinking about how this blog is the place where my vision began . . . The blogosphere is where I began to be more adventurous as a person and a teacher . . . trying new things . . . writing about them . . . learning from others. I have learned much. I am no longer the fearful Chinese girl just arriving in America. Neither am I what I wish to finally be. I will cut myself some slack on my expectations of me, but still . . .

So here I am . . . inspired by my colleagues' perspective of me, inspired by a gentle nudge from a friend a few months ago. I could spend a few hours re-reading and editing this post, but instead I'll just push send and let it exist as it is.