TL;DR:
- Life doesn’t come with a built-in GPS system. Our emotions are what our bodies use to send alerts and signals to our internal world.
- As you continue to regulate your emotional GPS, will you choose to sink or help students sail?
- Use your emotional GPS to guide you in the right direction.
Around this time last year, I woke up early one Saturday morning. I had received a direct message from TheOrganicPoet.com asking if I would write a guest poem for their upcoming theme “Alone we SINK, Together we SAIL.” They wanted to feature poems to let teachers know they were loved and supported during the hard times we were facing.
Now, I want to be honest. I had never written a poem but was inspired by their purpose. At the time this poem was written, I had been in my home for almost 90 days. I had created my own little clandestine island to secretly safeguard my own feelings of doubts and insecurity about what the future would hold.
Life doesn’t come with a built-in GPS system.
“Life doesn’t come with a built-in GPS system. Our emotions, which range from uncontrollable anger to passionate feelings of love, are what our bodies use to send instantaneous alerts and signal changes within our world. These responses keep our internal and external worlds synchronized, which allows us to remain safe and continue to thrive” (Fowler-White, 2021, p. 105).
As you continue to regulate your emotional GPS, what will it be? Will you choose to sink or join us and help students sail? Click To TweetWhen fears creep in they have the ability to take command of your thoughts, stifle your creative artistry, avert your mind when new and innovative ideas work their way in, and result in our emotions clouding our body’s natural guidance systems.
As these doubts creep in, your emotions take over, you are predisposed to sticking to what seems normal and conform to what you see everyone else doing.
When this occurs, it “drains the purpose from your work and life, makes personal and professional relationships seem tenuous and uncertain, and almost guarantees that you’ll fail to live with intention” (David, 2016, p. 117). This limits your possibilities and practically ensures you will never reach your full potential. Emotional instability prevents you from thinking clearly about what you hope and know you are capable of accomplishing.
From this day forward, be sure to stay in tuned with your feelings, work to keep your thoughts regulated, and reflect on the things you value so that you can use them to guide your way and walk in your purpose.
When was the last time you sat down and wrote the things you truly value? Without these signs to guide our path, when we encounter a fork in the road, we will aimlessly go through life making snap judgments, working on mindless projects, and spontaneously surf through life.
So, on that morning, I woke up to the smell of bacon and wrote these words to uplift not only educator spirits from around the world, but to chart out what I envisioned as the intent of education and remind myself to walk and work with purpose…
Who would have thought our lives would abruptly come to a halt?
But through it all you didn’t give it a second thought.
Transforming hallways, bedrooms, bathrooms, dining rooms, and backyards…
To entertain, to educate, into make-shift office spaces, and pretend vacations.
There is no limit to what we can accomplish if we remove imposed barriers and do what we know is necessary.
Use these unexplainable circumstances as an opportunity for ingenuity.
Disrupt the norm; Push against the grain; Protest we must…
Because our lives will never be the same.
Envision things anew; Our kids are counting on you.
Educators are rising to the challenge.
Alone we SINK, but together we will SAIL.
As I stated in the poem a year ago, I want every teacher reading this blog to know that your efforts are not going unnoticed, to remind you that there is no playbook for the task we are embarking on and encourage you to continue to work together as we sail.
I’m happy to say that one year later although we still have many challenges ahead of us, teachers all over the world have embraced what many thought were insurmountable obstacles and charted a new path for teaching and learning.
Now, I know what you are thinking. This has been one of the most difficult school years to date. You didn’t sign up to work clear through the summer months without a break. Normally, we would be on the home stretch and planning where our family would go for summer break as we worked to close out the school year.
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This, however, is not a normal year.
As you grow weary and long for a mental break, once again you are being asked to put children first. As you contemplate working in the months to come, focus on the difference this extra time will make. We are much better at bouncing back and working through challenges than our students are.
For many, this is the first time they have had to navigate continuous instability within their lives. If we only knew the real story behind our most disengaged scholars, it would probably make us cry. Stop right now and list the names of those students who still won’t engage.
Can’t you spare a little extra time to help them find their way? Add these names to your list of values and post it somewhere you can review often. This will keep those students in the forefront of your mind as you continue to press on.
I’m happy to say that now one year later, we’re one year wiser.
Here I am still wondering what the future holds, but no longer insecure or doubting the possibilities of things yet to come. I know that “regardless of what came before or of what has yet to come, what matters most right now is how I choose to respond to the challenge before me. Will I lie down, or will I fight? The choice is mine and I choose to finish strong” (Green, 2016). As you continue to regulate your emotional GPS, what will it be? Will you choose to sink or join us and help students sail?
References
David, S. (2016). Emotional Agility: Get Unstuck, Embrace Change, and Thrive in Work and Life.
Fowler-White, J. (2021). Educator Reflection Tips, Volume II: Refining Our Practice.
Ganic, T. (2019). TheOrganicPoet.com
Green, D. (2016). The Compelled Educator
About Jami Fowler-White
Jami Fowler-White is the CEO of Digital PD 4 You, LLC. Over the past two decades, she has served in many capacities in education which include ten years as a classroom teacher, an Instructional Coach, and a Core Advocate with Achieve the Core. She currently mentors First-time and Renewal candidates for the National Board and is a charter member of the National Board Network of Minoritized Educators and Black Women Education Leaders, Incorporated.
Additionally, Mrs. Fowler-White is also a proud member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority and currently serves as an assistant principal in Shelby County Schools (TN). Fowler-White also provides professional development under the umbrella of the National Board and Digital PD 4 You for schools and districts.
She is the author/coauthor of several books including, Educator Reflection Tips, Volume #1, EduMatch’s Snapshots in Education 2020: Remote Learning Edition, The Skin You are In: Colorism in the Black Community, 2nd Edition, and Educator Reflection Tips, Volume II: Refining our Practice.
Jami blogs at DigitalPD4You.com , has a bi-monthly leadership blog on Insight Advance, and writes a monthly blog entitled the Better Mindset on TeachBetter.com She can be contacted via email at: jwhite.nbct2008@gmail.com and invites you to connect with her on Twitter via @JjJj821
