The extra degree

When you lose sight of the impact you can make and are making, you lose sight of the passion that made you start doing what you do in the first place. Other people may put labels on you and define you by your title, but don't let that define who you are and what you can do. As Angelia Maiers always says, you matter and the world needs your contribution. The world needs the mixture that makes you, YOU....so quit with the comparing, the competing, and just be YOU.

I know it's been a while, but between buying a house, moving, catching the crud, and well just plain busy...I have lost sight of some of the things that fuel my passion. I had let the labels again dictate the voice that I have and almost convinced myself that I had lost it. I had almost let the hustle and bustle of the motions drive out the passion of what makes me move. A conversation with my administrator one day a couple of weeks ago was the turning point professionally that I needed. He shared with me about 212 degrees (a training he had attended earlier in the month(there is also a book)). At 212 degrees water turns into steam and steam can propel an engine. At 211 degrees water is just hot, but it's that extra degree that makes it boil...and boiling water can make a change. We all have the same hours in the day. What we choose to do with them is our choice? What are you giving your extra degree to? Is it fueling your passion or maintaining the motions?

As educators, we must constantly be pushing ourselves to become better than we were yesterday at the same time while realizing that our yesterday made an impact in someone's life. We can't lose sight of the push or we will become comfortable in just staying at the 211 point (or below) and our passion, our students, our profession is longing for that extra degree.