Teacher Tip Tuesday: Simple.

This morning, I'm just going to give it to you straight:  

Sometimes we make it just too ding dang hard in our classrooms.  

We want the systems and the cutie pie stuff and the routines and the decorations and the ideas.  We want our children to be perfect and we want everyone to just get along.  We want to look super professional and trendy and we want to be included on all the committees and in the know about all the stuff.  We want it all!

However, our efforts can often turn out to be one big mess.  

And when you let that happen, it will begin to eat you alive.   

You will find yourself struggling to put it all back together again.  You will sometimes find that all of your efforts have been in vain.  You will beat yourself up over stupid mistakes and you will cringe at the words that slipped out of your mouth.  You might get a snow day or a delay and have to regroup and reconfigure your entire plans. 

So, the next time you feel like you are struggling to stay on top of your game (or maybe even just in the game).  When you have 898472 paper cuts from making too many trinkets and paper crafts for your kids or when you find yourself worried about crafting the perfect image. 

When you are sweating things that have nothing to do with your actual curriculum--

then maybe it's time to take a step back and just get over yourself.