Don't Judge A Classroom By Its Cover

I often feel that teachers are expected to be super human.  We need to have a smile on our face, calm voice, mapped out curriculum, current on the latest teaching practices, therapists to all, be fun, calm, data driven, technology gurus, curriculum creators and innovators and much MUCH more.  A lot of teachers I know are type A.  We are passionate and driven and will challenge ourselves to be the best even if it means sacrificing our sleep, weight, stress level and quality time on the weekends.  Sites like Pinterest and teaching blogs  further challenge us into the super human educator realm.  I try my darndest to do it all and do it all with 100% of my effort.    Don't get me wrong; I love it all and get so inspired, but sometimes I catch myself in a comparison trap.  I may think, that teacher really has it together; I wish I could be as organized as she is.  I will look at my pins on Pinterest and want to do it ALL and think I am not doing enough!  I will look at teaching blogs and do the same.  Wow she always does the cutest activities, look at her classroom; everything looks neat and tidy.  HAULT!!!!! Nothing is perfect and this thinking is unproductive. Pinterest, teaching blogs, a beautiful classroom, a photo of a classroom art project where every child's art is the same and looks cloned, a new curriculum idea are all fabulous, inspiring, and amazing....buuuuuuut some days a teacher needs to stop and honor her very own humanness!!!!  Humanness is endearing and beautifully imperfect.  How are we supposed to teach our students to make mistakes, have balance, embrace their imperfections, and not be cookie cutter, if we as educators push ourselves too hard and try to be perfect.  Yikes, this post may have become a bit preachy and speechy, but I needed to remind myself of this today.

Here my classroom is in all its shiny glory.  Loving my cute little table all spruced up for spring.  See that door in the back of the photo with the spring poster on it???? Lurking behind that door is my humanness and I am  PROUD OF IT!  Drum roll please....

Ta Da!!!

Yes,  yes my dear teacher friends this is my closet and I am proud of it!  I moved in to my current classroom a week before school started.  This is the culmination of 5 classroom moves in 6 years.  All the stuff that didn't quite find a way to be put away has made a home here.  My thoughts are---- I can't walk into the closet, so I can't clean it.  I open the door thinking I will be ambitious and clean it out and then just as that productivity sinks in, the door is quickly shut and I figure I will probably move again this year so why not just hold off.  When I see this closet in real life I cringe and beat myself up, but seeing this picture above makes me smile and even chuckle a bit.  I'm a bit goofy, a bit quirky, a bit messy, a bit of a procrastinator, but gosh darn it; that's what makes me human.  This teacher isn't waiting for Superman and super human teaching powers; I am happy to just be me and sprinkle teaching magic every chance I get!