You Make a Difference

So for most teachers in the country, last week was a crazy week of weather closings and/or weather delays. It's left everyone scrambling over the weekend to "catch up" and the traditional Sunday night panic has started to ensue. Regardless of what you teach, everyone seems to be feeling some kind of stress right now. As a special education educator, it's paperwork. The demands of the paperwork seem to never end and just when I think I've gotten a handle on it and it's organized for now...boom something changes to mess with that "plan". Teachers by nature are good at being flexible and "rolling with things" to a certain point as long as they know what they are doing makes a difference.  Some how every year we justify the stress as long as we know that in the end it is making a difference for at least one. That's why we do what we do so much and why we push past our own needs. Recently I was met with a comment that rubbed me the wrong way. It made me question what I do and made me analyze my time spent on certain tasks. In short it made me feel like what I was doing, the time, the effort, to put towards not only Plan A, but having Plans B-Z ready just in case wasn't worth it. Sometimes I think it's hard to not see past our own stresses and realize everyone is stressed this time of the year. So I had a decision to make, could I keep pushing the replay button on that comment and let it affect how I view what I do or could I do something about it. Inspired by some amazing ladies in my PLN I pulled together some of my favorite quotes. This blog post is not a techie post, a book review, but simply an encouragement post. For a minute I realized, if I am feeling this way, maybe someone else is. My hope is that one of these quotes will be what you can hang on to this week and push through all of the demands. Despite the stress, the endless to-do list, and the calendar that has more to do than hours, you are making a difference. You decide which comments go in the replay section and which ones go in the delete section, choose wisely. One last shout out before I add the quotes....if you are a special education teacher...YOU MATTER! I know we do not always hear it as much as the general education teachers do, but what you do makes a difference and matters to so many.

Have an amazing week teachers and never forget... You Matter!!