CELEBRATING THE FIRST HALF

       
         
      Hey I-Team, I hope you're doing well this twelfth and final month of 2021! I don't know about you, but I'm eager for Christmas Break! And to all of my fellow educators...we finally made it to the halfway point y'all!!! Excuse me while I take a few minutes to go into a Praise Break !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I don't think anyone would disagree with the fact that this first half of the school year has been rough. From the daily shortages of substitute teachers, bus drives, cafeteria workers, etc., to the struggle of tackling learning loss by many of our students, there has been an overwhelming number of educators across the county who have shared the same sentiments as their colleagues when discussing burn out early on in the year.
​      In a recent article published by the National Association of Educators (NEA), senior writer Tim Walker found that K-12 public school educators were the most likely to report higher levels of anxiety, stress and burnout during the COVID-19 pandemic. With so many new obstacles brought on during this school year, I'm sure we all might know at least one educator who resigned from their position during the first half of this school year. As an Instructional Coach I have to admit, there were so many days where it was hard to watch teachers who love what they do, become discouraged because they couldn't be there for their students (especially when classes had to quarantine, and that happened quite a bit during this first half of the year). Although classes were able to meet online, teachers still felt like instruction wasn't the same online as it is when you're in person. All the challenges brought on during this one semester, but you pushed through. And now here you are halfway through the school year. I don't know about you, but I think that's cause for celebration!!!!!! In fact, if you head on over to the Intentional Instruction Podcast, you can hear my self-care tips that I encourage you to try as you celebrate the end of the first half of this school year; you can listen by clicking here.

The Intentional Toolkit
Inside the Intentional Toolkit I've also included a few articles that are timely and are connected to the blog and podcast discussion. To access them just click on the toolkit at the bottom of this page. From there you'll be able to open the PDF. As always, I hope you find these resources useful.

​   Well, that's all for now, but as you enjoy some of your favorite holiday traditions with those you love, may your days be merry and bright, and may all the work-related stress leave from your sight.
​Until next time...go out there and be GREAT! 

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