Bloom Where You Are Planted
Our world is full of motivational quotes, memes, and inspirational words that have conflicting messages. Choose Joy, Bloom Where You are Planted, Beautiful things happen when you distance yourself from negativity, Be the Change ........... is it truly possible to bloom where you are planted, while being the change, and staying away from negativity? Maybe.
I have always been a firm believer in Bloom Where You are Planted. My lst job was in a middle school just a few blocks from inner city Cleveland. I was 24, and had always been a suburbanite. This job was a big step outside of my bubble. I hung a Mary Englebreit poster in my classroom and held firm to the saying......"Bloom Where You Are Planted". This quote makes me think of a weed growing and thriving in a crack in the sidewalk, and that may have been a little how I felt. I took over the job mid semester. I was replacing a really "cool" teacher (who smoked weed and skateboarded with the kids.....) and so the kids didn't exactly love me at the start. Initially, my daily goal was to make it to my car before I started to cry.
Being creative, I did some soul searching, some brainstorming and, came up with a few ideas. By the end of the year I was runner up for an 8th grade superlative.....Favorite 8th Grade teacher. In my classroom, I did some of most crazy, you can't help but want to make this sort of projects. One was constructing life size mummy cases. I had 100% participation. I was young, so on Fridays, I started playing basketball with the kids during their post lunch outdoor time. I played the boys in one on one games. I think I finished the year undefeated. I also played basketball after school with a group of boys and the PE teacher. Those boys went from hating me (replacing their cool buddy teacher) to defending me and offering to break up any fight that took place in my classroom (which was an almost daily experience). It was a transformation. I bloomed, the kids bloomed with me.
In my current position, I was working myself to a level of stress that just doesn't fit with the job title "elementary art teacher". Two EKG's this year, twitching eye (sometimes eyes), a stress rash on my fingers, stress eating (and weight gain), and circles under my eyes that might make you think I was the start of the zombie apocalypse. I was SO TIRED at the end of the day. Unreasonably tired. I spent a long time thinking about why. I felt like I was fighting for everything. Every step of the day was met with push back. I was expected to (and I wanted to) make great things happen regardless - regardless of student behavior and attitude, regardless of student participation, regardless of time constraints, regardless of my family and life. And I think I did. I made great things happen. I bloomed. I was Teacher of the Year, selected for the Superintendent's Council (of 12) Teachers, and was helping lead an amazing arts integration initiative at my school. But while I was blooming, and there were lots of things I liked about my job, I felt very strongly that I wanted to be transplanted to a different garden. A quieter garden off the beaten path perhaps. One in which flourishing came a little more easily and that has soil that fertilize my growth. One that will appreciate my hard work, and won't leave me with a twitching eye.
After spending my commute listening to TED talks on happiness, finding your bliss, distancing yourself from negativity, and creating change, I felt I needed to create change. From my soul searching, I realized, that while I was blooming in my current teaching position, it was time to distance myself from negativity and the overwhelming feeling of never being, or giving, or assisting, or volunteering enough. I had to stop being made to feel like less that I was. I had to step up and step out and create change to better my life and the life of my kids. My former Principal believes as teachers we are saving lives, and while I believe that to be true, God has given me two lives that are my first focus. I am their only parent. My number one job is to be there to save and shape their lives first. And I had nothing left for them.
It all happened, in the blink of an eye. In His time, not mine. An application, an interview, and now two new gardens. I hope my former school was touched by my presence. I hope my students gained creative thinking and problem solving skills, as well as, pride in work complete to the best of their abilities. I hope the teachers I collaborated with will still include the arts in their lessons, because it is fun, and impactful. However, more than anything, I hope and pray my new gardens will tend me in a way that build me up. I pray I will leave each day, not exhausted, but content in my work. I pray I won't be a weed growing in a crack in the sidewalk, but rather a flower that is one small part of a lovely garden.
I have always been a firm believer in Bloom Where You are Planted. My lst job was in a middle school just a few blocks from inner city Cleveland. I was 24, and had always been a suburbanite. This job was a big step outside of my bubble. I hung a Mary Englebreit poster in my classroom and held firm to the saying......"Bloom Where You Are Planted". This quote makes me think of a weed growing and thriving in a crack in the sidewalk, and that may have been a little how I felt. I took over the job mid semester. I was replacing a really "cool" teacher (who smoked weed and skateboarded with the kids.....) and so the kids didn't exactly love me at the start. Initially, my daily goal was to make it to my car before I started to cry.
Being creative, I did some soul searching, some brainstorming and, came up with a few ideas. By the end of the year I was runner up for an 8th grade superlative.....Favorite 8th Grade teacher. In my classroom, I did some of most crazy, you can't help but want to make this sort of projects. One was constructing life size mummy cases. I had 100% participation. I was young, so on Fridays, I started playing basketball with the kids during their post lunch outdoor time. I played the boys in one on one games. I think I finished the year undefeated. I also played basketball after school with a group of boys and the PE teacher. Those boys went from hating me (replacing their cool buddy teacher) to defending me and offering to break up any fight that took place in my classroom (which was an almost daily experience). It was a transformation. I bloomed, the kids bloomed with me.
In my current position, I was working myself to a level of stress that just doesn't fit with the job title "elementary art teacher". Two EKG's this year, twitching eye (sometimes eyes), a stress rash on my fingers, stress eating (and weight gain), and circles under my eyes that might make you think I was the start of the zombie apocalypse. I was SO TIRED at the end of the day. Unreasonably tired. I spent a long time thinking about why. I felt like I was fighting for everything. Every step of the day was met with push back. I was expected to (and I wanted to) make great things happen regardless - regardless of student behavior and attitude, regardless of student participation, regardless of time constraints, regardless of my family and life. And I think I did. I made great things happen. I bloomed. I was Teacher of the Year, selected for the Superintendent's Council (of 12) Teachers, and was helping lead an amazing arts integration initiative at my school. But while I was blooming, and there were lots of things I liked about my job, I felt very strongly that I wanted to be transplanted to a different garden. A quieter garden off the beaten path perhaps. One in which flourishing came a little more easily and that has soil that fertilize my growth. One that will appreciate my hard work, and won't leave me with a twitching eye.
After spending my commute listening to TED talks on happiness, finding your bliss, distancing yourself from negativity, and creating change, I felt I needed to create change. From my soul searching, I realized, that while I was blooming in my current teaching position, it was time to distance myself from negativity and the overwhelming feeling of never being, or giving, or assisting, or volunteering enough. I had to stop being made to feel like less that I was. I had to step up and step out and create change to better my life and the life of my kids. My former Principal believes as teachers we are saving lives, and while I believe that to be true, God has given me two lives that are my first focus. I am their only parent. My number one job is to be there to save and shape their lives first. And I had nothing left for them.
It all happened, in the blink of an eye. In His time, not mine. An application, an interview, and now two new gardens. I hope my former school was touched by my presence. I hope my students gained creative thinking and problem solving skills, as well as, pride in work complete to the best of their abilities. I hope the teachers I collaborated with will still include the arts in their lessons, because it is fun, and impactful. However, more than anything, I hope and pray my new gardens will tend me in a way that build me up. I pray I will leave each day, not exhausted, but content in my work. I pray I won't be a weed growing in a crack in the sidewalk, but rather a flower that is one small part of a lovely garden.
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