teaching blogs

Tonight I discovered blogs written by passionate, thoughtful, smart teachers. Of course if I had really thought about it, I would have said that there were blogs out there written by and/or designed for teachers, but I never thought of it. I don't know why. So, I was so happily surprised to stumble upon one after another that I absolutely loved after following a link from...my mother.

They inspired me.

They comforted me.

I don't get a lot of time to just talk to other teachers about how to teach. Special ed. meetings and inservices aren't about actual teaching, they are about reports we need to write, data we need to collect, procedures we need to follow and meetings we need to hold. When I talk to other teachers at school it is to quickly go over a schedule change or agree that we're glad tomorrow is Friday or lament over a student's low test score and then run off in different directions saying, "I'll catch up with you later."

So after having a tough week that left me feeling very low on hope and inspiration and any good feelings about teaching at all...it was so good to run into these blogs. Yes. I want to be a teacher. Yes. I love teaching. Yes. I want to keep learning and trying new things to figure out what works best. Yes. I can do this.

Then I found this hilarious video. It's more about the ridiculous parts of "well intended" education policies, but laughing is good for you even if it's about something that really makes you want to scream!