This past week, I attended the Get Your Teach On conference in Washington, D.C. It was a fabulous two days of learning and collaborating. I can honestly say that I left feeling invigorated and re-energized and I couldn’t wait to get back into my classroom once I got back home. If you are looking for a conference to attend or if you need a little pick me up to remind yourself why you became a teacher in the first place, Get Your Teach On is the conference to go to! Just click on the photo below to get to the conference website.
While a lot of the content of the conference was about engaging students in math, language arts, social studies, and technology, all presenters really drove home the idea of how each of us should strive to be the reason why our students come to school each and every day. That message rang loud and clear to me. To be honest, the concept is nothing new to me as the whole idea actually started taking shape in my mind waaaaayyyy back in 1991. How, you might ask?
Well, it all started with a simple news clip of Lady Diana seeing her children after an evening out in Toronto, Ontario.
Something about seeing Lady Diana throw royal protocol out the window and showering her sons in love and hugs spoke directly to me. The urgency of her getting onto the boat, watching her footsteps gain momentum and speed as she approached her young sons, and seeing her open and welcoming arms envelope her boys was such a touching moment for me. From that point on, I vowed that I would do my best to make sure that my future children would always feel that level of excitement and love each and every morning after they wake up, after seeing them for the first time returning from daycare or school, and especially after we have been separated because of conferences, sleepovers with grandparents, school trips, etc. My goal was to make sure that my children knew that there was nothing more important in the world to me then them in that very moment. My goal was, and still is, to show my children that level of love each and every day.
As I began my teaching career, I always had the Lady Diana Effect in the forefront of my mind but it really hasn’t been until this year, my 20th year of teaching, that I feel that I have really used it to it’s full potential. Perhaps it is the students that I have this year, perhaps it is my own “comfortable-ness” and confidence in myself that I am relying on, perhaps it was just the presenters at Get Your Teach On who made me realize it, but I noticed it after coming back from 3 days away at the conference. When I stepped into my classroom and my students came in, they were just as happy to see me as I was to see them. There were hugs, there were smiles, there were laughs, and there was a lot of love going around. And it wasn’t just from one or two students — it was from all 26. My heart was full within the first two minutes of our homeroom period – and that feeling still hasn’t gone away.
My advice to you is to seek out your own Lady Diana Effect. Make each and every one of your students feel that he/she is the reason why you come to teach every day — particularly the ones that drives you crazy or you aren’t really connecting with. Those are the ones that will grab a hold of your heart… and are the ones that need your loving the most.
Have a great day!
Leave a Reply