"Let's put on flat hats and dream. " -- Kid President

I came home to a posting on Facebook from Soul Pancake.  SP is one of those things that makes my life better, simply by dipping my proverbial toe in its goodness. 

Once again, I owe my exposure to something wonderful to one of my colleagues.  Several years ago, Justin mentioned it to me, and gave me a peak at one of his books.  Soul Pancake borders on religion, without being religious.  (Unless you actually consider yourself to be a religious person, in which case you'll see that it drips in religion without offending those who are not.)  Justin is the chairperson of the Business Department, and holds an MBA.  He's only slightly older than my oldest son, and has the ability to ground and humble me with his professionalism and ability to rationally approach the most irrational of educational nonsense.  We all need someone like this in our professional lives; someone who makes us think, challenges us to try new things, and tosses out quiet compliments that make your day worthwhile.

Soul Pancake offers similar goodness -- especially when it comes to Kid President.  "Let's put on flat hats and dream!!!" 

 "Reach higher than you've ever reached."

Today I reflected.  

I guess this isn't really a huge revelation, given the last 247 consecutive days of #reflectiveteacher blogging, but this was a different sort of reflection.  I built a reflective résumé of this school year, in anticipation of my annual sit down with my administrator to go through the lovely evaluation tool created by my BFF, Charlotte Danielson.    I took the advice of one of my friends, and gathered all the "evidence" I've been setting aside all year, and divided into piles representing the domains of an effective teacher, according to Danielson.  I have emails, lessons, notes from students and parents, copies of presentations and proposals I've written, classes I've taken, all of which plug into the various domains to "prove" my effectiveness as a teacher.

It was an interesting exercise, and when I was finished I had a two page résumé that summarizes my year, and has proven to be my own fuzzy wuzzy soul pancake, making me realize how very wonderful this school year has been.  (Aside from the mental image I have now of a fuzzy pancake, which is pretty repulsive, considering the recent purge of the back of the refrigerator....)

Search for a block of 20 minutes or so and jot down what you've done this year.  It will help you identify what you can do next year to be more awesome.

Which will make Kid President very proud.