Things I learned in 2015

Although 2015 was a tough year on a number of personal levels, professionally, it's been one of the best.

I began to believe in myself. People who don't know me personally would probably think that I am super confident. Actually, I struggle with self-doubt often.  Not as much as when I was young, but...it still comes up quite a bit.  Especially now that I blog and offer things from my classroom on Teachers Pay Teachers.  This year, I finally said, I'm going to come out of my comfort zone!
I applied to be a presenter for SDE, and I was able to squeak in when someone else was not able to present last summer.  WOW. #thatisall.  In 2016, I'll be presenting at least 3 times, and I get to travel too!  I am beyond excited to connect with teachers across the country.  It's been a dream of mine for a long time.  Not a dream anymore.  It's reality.

I found my writing voice. When I first started blogging, it was more of a self-reflective tool.  I followed the lead of others who came before me.  I joined linkies, I blogged about things that I thought were pin-worthy.  I tried to make myself as 'cute' as possible. But...much of that was inorganic and I wasn't really happy.  In October last year, I was talking to a mentor/friend of mine about how blogging is dead and that no one reads blogs anymore.  She said, no they are not!  What are you blogging about?  I told her, and she said, well, you don't sound really excited about that.  What WOULD you blog about if you felt you could? Hmm...that, friends was the beginning.  I wanted to blog more intentionally about content, pedagogy, and assessment.  As a teacher of color, I wanted to blog more about race, educational policy and politics.  When I wanted to grow with others, I couldn't find anyone like that on my own.  Last year at the TPT conference, I met a few other teacher/bloggers of color, but we were at a loss as to pulling together too many more, but...look at what we did!  There's a group of us that are in a group called Teaching Mosaic on Facebook. The group is for teachers of color who blog or create educational resources.  If you were looking for someone to bounce blog post ideas off of...or to just talk about practical solutions for teachers of color...or teachers working with students of color, this group is for you! :)

Want to join us on Facebook?  Click HERE.

I discovered that I was not alone.  There are lots of other teachers out there...of all colors, who are interested in the same things that I am.  You know where I found them?  TWITTER.  Seriously.  Twitter!  I asked around and found out that if I wanted to connect with other teachers who shared my interests, my tribe was on Twitter.  This year, I connected with several other bloggers who inspire me all the time with their poignant posts and earnest hope for our learners and leaders.  I blogged about a few folks who've inspired me with their posts this year.  You can check that post out HERE.
I don't know what 2016 holds for me...but if it is better than 2015, that would totally rock my world.
Thanks to all of you who read my posts, who thank me for my products, who messaged me to check on me, who remind me everyday that my voice matters...to YOU. :)
I'm a better teacher because of all of you! :) Thanks so very much!