Final-What is a strength you can blog about?

“Ultimately, the strengths were the first focus to help us move forward…”

 When we focus so much on weaknesses and how to improve them that we forget to look at what we do well and take time to celebrate our strengths.  I’m guilty of being critical of myself and looking for improvement.  I get worn down listening to negative feedback (as many do in education) and have to sit down and make time to see the good.  I have a box that I keep filled with positive notes and cards that I’ve received over the years.  I call it my “happy thought box” and I sit down and read the notes when I’ve had a really bad day, week or experience.  Over six years of teaching I’ve been able to print emails from parents, save letters from graduating seniors and screenshots of texts from parents and students that have kept me in education. 

In order to complete this final blog I’ve asked four colleagues what they think are my top three strengths and will be reflecting on what they replied.

Responses received to the questions, 

“What do you think are my top three strengths as a teacher?

1. Connection to and genuinely caring for your students

2. Knowledge of subjects and Organization (averaged out to a tie for #2)

3. Make learning fun

As my peers sent me their responses a trend emerged and I began to smile. 

 “They don’t care what you know until they know that you care.” 

I’ve always felt that building relationships with my students was a top priority and want to believe that it is truly reflected in my life.  I think that every group that I work with is important and that the children that I serve are precious and loved.  I strive to build relationships and connect with students over all parts of their lives.  As a teacher I put so much time into professional development and putting together lessons that I can be a distraction to what really matters.

At the DELTA conference I was challenged with the thought that a bee pollinates flowers as a consequence of doing their job well.  You see, a bee's job is to collect pollen to bring back to the hive and they have no idea that their job leads them to pollinating our flowers and vegetation.  This illustration made me think about what my job really is and what other positive consequences flow out of doing "my job" well.  My motto is "with purpose" and when I apply that to building relationships with students then all of my other jobs as an educator fall into place and give me open doors to do more with students.  When I lose focus of building relationships and start focusing on meeting state expectancies, FFA competitions, lessons or any other parts of "the job" then I start to feel overwhelmed and ineffective.

Every time a graduated student sends me a text or stops by during class I remember that it’s about more than teaching agriculture lessons but about being there when students really need you.  At times it is emotionally exhausting to want to be there for students when things are happening in my own life.  I always regret noticing a kid that is “off” on a given day and not pulling them aside to ask, “what’s up?”  I have never regretted seeing the sadness in their eyes or the change in behavior and taking the time to talk with that student. 

I love my students and they are my “why.”

I'm proud to say that my number one strength as an educator (as evaluated by my peers) is connecting with and caring for students.