Thank you, PAATA!

This past week I had the honor of traveling to Canada and headlining the Prince Albert and Area Teachers’ Convention. This was my first time keynoting in another country and to say that I was both excited and nervous would be an understatement. Would my message resonate? Would my jokes land, ha? Would they welcome a girl from Ohio.

They did welcome me. They were incredibly kind, and I miss them already.

Following my keynote, I had the opportunity to facilitate two breakout sessions. I love breakouts because smaller settings allow for connection, community, and learning from one another.

Some of the most powerful and insightful shares during the breakout seasons came from first and second year teachers. There’s a lesson there for those of us who have been around for a good minute. Do not underestimate what you can learn from early career educators. Their fresh perspectives allow us to look at familiar challenges and situations from a different angle. We spent some time practicing the small moves that I had mentioned during my keynote. During this time, a second year teacher shared something along the lines of, “It’s so easy for a tough moment to ruin how we feel about our day. I’ve been reminding myself that a rough 2 and a half minutes is a very small percentage of an entire day. There are many other really good moments too.”

Whoa. Powerful reframe.

And on the flip side, do not underestimate the valuable wisdom and insights offered by veteran teachers. I found immense value in their contributions too. In fact, I was moved to tears when one of them shared, “I came to this session to find you and thank you.” She tried to hold back tears as she explained in so many words, “What you shared about sunflowers and marigolds really impacted me.”

At this point, I’m now also crying. She quickly followed up with, “Hurry and say your phone number! You will stop crying because it requires you to use a different part of your brain.” It worked and also made us laugh, haha.

So many feelings!

I was spiraling a little bit following the keynote. Was it worthwhile? Did they connect with it? Was it good enough?

Hearing that there were teachers who hadn’t signed up for my breakout sessions but decided to come after hearing my morning message brought me peace and affirmation.

I’m not sharing any of this to be showy or self-serving. I’m sharing it because I know I have areas of improvement. I know I’m not perfect and my keynote wasn’t either.

And yet, as I remind us in Legacy of Learning, it doesn’t have to be perfect to be impactful.

So, as you go into this week:

1. Remember that tough moments are simply moments. They come and go. The good moments come and go too, so don’t forget to notice the good stuff.
2. You don’t have to be perfect to make an impact.
3. The work doesn’t have to be perfectly executed to make a positive difference.

Thank you, PAATA, you inspire me. Keep shining.